Winter Olympics: Canadian and Russian women’s hockey players wear masks during play due to “safety and security reasons”
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Canadian ice hockey wearing KN95 masks
The 2022 Winter Olympics are currently underway with extreme care of COVID protocols in Beijing, China. However, a bizarre incident took place during the women’s hockey match between Canada and ROC as the players of both teams took the ice Monday wearing KN95 masks underneath their hockey masks.
Earlier, the start of the preliminary group game was delayed by more than an hour. This occurred when the Canadian team did not receive a report on Russia’s COVID testing status and didn’t want to take the ice until that happened, according to Toronto Sun.
Following this, The Associated Press reported that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) told the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that players were required to wear masks owing to “safety and security reasons.”
However, the Russian players returned for the third period without their masks, but the Canadians kept theirs on.
IIHF sums up the incident but with little update
The IIHF did not provide all of the details about the entire matter after the game, saying that the game was delayed “with a view to ensure full understanding of the teams about the health and safety measures in place, the start of the preliminary round game between Canada and ROC was delayed by an hour.”
“Out of caution and concern for the health and safety of the players, the IIHF agreed with the participating teams to play the games with masks on,” the federation added.
“We came to the Olympics and we had to sit in our rooms without the opportunity to practice,” Russian forward Alexandra Vafina had said after the Switzerland game. “It was hard but we got all together, we stayed positive and we took this little opportunity that we had.”
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Sachin Arora
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