(ATR) The 2015 Ice Hockey World Championship is well underway in the Czech Republic, with a strong presence from PyeongChang 2018.
POCOG president Yang Ho Cho led a delegation of organizers and ambassadors on a three-day inspection visit in Prague this week.
"Cho and his team observed the organization of the tournament and logistics," Around the Rings European correspondent Brian Pinelli says.
"They admit Korea's not a true hockey country.
"They have a lot to learn, but they're doing their best to get up to speed."
Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, also met with the PyeongChang 2018 delegation.
Two of the largest cities in the Czech Republic, Ostrava and Prague, are hosting this year's tournament.
Pinelli says a star-studded gathering of athletes from the National Hockey League has invigorated the championship, but whether those NHL players will compete at PyeongChang 2018 remains undecided.
The IIHF, along with the Czech Ice Hockey Association, expects over 600,000 spectators to attend the competition.
Sixteen teams will compete at the championship which ends on May 17.
For general comments or questions,click here.
Photos: Getty Images
Modified sound effect: Sound Bible, GoGo/Attrib. 3.0
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics isAroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
