Posted on 12/24/2021 11:18:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
As some sports leagues embarrass themselves with actions antithetical to American values, the National Hockey League followed the right path earlier this week.
Professional hockey, which planned to pause their season for three weeks in early 2022 to accommodate players traveling to Communist China, made a bold decision by announcing this week the league will not compete in the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.
Some hockey fans may be disappointed, but they’re likely sentient enough to know it’s the right move.
The “Genocide and State-Sanctioned Kidnapping Games,” as they should be called, should of course have no American presence.
A noxious country that spits on human rights, places ethnic minorities in concentration camps, and is a political enemy of the United States and the West should not be honored; it should be condemned.
We did it!!
Today @JoeBiden signed into law a bill which will ban imports from Xinjiang region to the U.S, unless they can prove it wasn’t made with slave labor.
This will finally stop the abuse of Uyghurs!
The bill will ultimately punish China’s economy.– Take that @Nike https://t.co/p8nF2gRF9P pic.twitter.com/5yP8IX7kvP
— Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) December 23, 2021
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
I suspect the NHL is doing this because players are routinely taking over-the-counter cold medications to deal with potential minor COVID symptoms, and those medications contain ingredients that are considered banned, performance-enhancing substances under IOC rules.
You are correct. Gary Bettman is a jerk
No jerk about it. The Olympics have never been good for the NHL. Screws up their season, screws up the fitness of the players that don’t go to the Olympics, puts extra wear and tear on the ones that do, gives them NO bump in the ratings. The players union likes it, so negotiating that probably lets them pay the players a little less, that’s about all they get.
RE: So a PROFESSIONAL group of athletes will not participate in an amateur sports event?
The Olympics has stopped being amateur since the late 1980’s.
A scenario like the 2022 Winter Olympics is also the worst of all because they are being held in Asia — which means the TV coverage of the hockey games won’t get much interest in the wee hours of the morning here in North America.
Yeah. Every 4 years Bettman complains about it, talks about how they’ll have to “examine” it before the next Olympic. I know this one they almost pulled out of over the summer. There’s really no upside for the league.
The other difficulty is just because something isn’t made in China doesn’t mean the factories in other countries aren’t owned by China. It really is a difficult thing to determine the virtue level behind a product these days.
NHL didn’t withdraw because they have a problem with China 🤪
They say it’s due to Covid and scheduling issues due to missed games!
See for yourself :
The National Hockey League respects and admires the desire of NHL Players to represent their countries and participate in a ‘best on best’ tournament. Accordingly, we have waited as long as possible to make this decision while exploring every available option to enable our Players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “Unfortunately, given the profound disruption to the NHL’s regular-season schedule caused by recent COVID-related events — 50 games already have been postponed through Dec. 23 — Olympic participation is no longer feasible. We certainly acknowledge and appreciate the efforts made by the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Beijing Organizing Committee to host NHL Players but current circumstances have made it impossible for us to proceed despite everyone’s best efforts. We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.
I disagree. The 2014 Olympics Ice Hockey Competition was some of the most exciting and greatest hockey ever played. No doubt.
Sure. But the NHL got nothing out of it. Their ratings didn’t increase. The revenue didn’t increase. And with fatigue and injuries the quality of play probably dropped. The NHL is a business. They’re job is not to make good hockey they don’t get paid for. They’re job is to make hockey make them money.
Terrible take…Olympic exposure for the NHL means the sport spreads around the world and the NHL gets MORE money.
No it doesn’t. The ratings have NEVER gone up after the NHL has participated in the Olympics. The gate has NEVER gone up after the NHL participated in the Olympics. There’s no evidence that having NHL players in the Olympics spreads anything, except their players energy. Certainly when they started this the NHL HOPED your sentence would be true. But it hasn’t come to pass.
If too many athletes or organizations try to withdraw, #BeijingBiden will step in to ban that, on the orders of his puppetmaster Xi.
That's why any athlete from the West would be an idiot for going.
There should be a World Hockey Classic every 4 years during the summer. Similar to the World Cup and World Baseball Classic in other sports.
Chinese companies own many of the “made in Italy“ leather goods factories in Milan. Many Chinese workers live there in crowded quarters and work in those factories. When a large number of them returned from Chinese New Year home visits in 2020, fears about COVID-19 exploded.
FWIW, I think this has bugger all to do with the Uyghurs.
The NHL should never do the Olympics again. The Olympics are not what they used to be.
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