A joint Korean women's ice hockey team could participate at PyeongChang 2018, "after it was announced that a meeting has been called to discuss the North's participation at the Games," according to Nick Butler of INSIDE THE GAMES. Between three and eight players from North Korea "could feature in an otherwise South Korean women's squad due to participate at the Games." The two Koreas previously competed together under the unification flag in '91 when they played as a single team in the World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan, and the World Youth Football Championship in Lisbon, Portugal (INSIDE THE GAMES, 1/10).
FORSBERG WEIGHS IN: REUTERS' Philip O'Connor reported there may be no National Hockey League players "on show" in PyeongChang but two-time Olympic ice hockey Gold Medalist Peter Forsberg "still expects a great Olympic ice hockey tournament." Forsberg said, "I don't think you're going to sit there back home and think, 'This is not a good hockey game.' I think they're going to be great hockey games." With no pros from North America, the Olympic squads will now "mostly be drawn from the European and Russian professional hockey leagues." Of the NHL's decision not to allow its players to participate, Forsberg said, "I was a little disappointed in the beginning, but now I'm kind of over it" (REUTERS, 1/11).
