Ice hockey’s governing body on Tuesday backtracked on plans to bar China’s men’s team from competing next year at the Beijing Olympics, a swift reversal that came only weeks after the hockey organization’s president had raised concerns that China’s team simply was not good enough to merit a place in the field.
The organization’s president, Luc Tardif, announced that China would remain in the Olympic tournament in a statement released at the end of a three-day meeting of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Zurich.
“To be clear, the I.I.H.F. is not going to remove the Chinese team from the Olympic Games,” Tardif said.