Canada’s women's hockey team defeated Russia, 6-1, in a preliminary round game of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. That’s the news.
- But both teams had to play the game wearing face masks due to uncertainty about each country’s COVID-19 status.
What happened: The Toronto Sun reports that the game between Russia and Canada was delayed because Canada did not receive Russia’s COVID-19 report. The country didn’t want to face off until it received the full report of the team’s COVID-19 status.
- So when the teams began playing, they both wore KN95 masks during their time on the ice.
- The International Olympic Committee reportedly mandated the mask use due to “safety and security reasons.”
The end line: Russian players removed their masks after two periods once the report came in. Canada’s team kept its masks on.
- “The results came in and they were negative, and they said they were going to take their masks off,” Team Canada’s Natalie Spooner said, according to Yahoo! Sports. “We figured we had them on for two periods, so why not keep being extra safe for one period?”
- “This is probably a cool story in the long run,” Spooner said. “We can say we were at the COVID Olympics and we even wore a mask in a game.”