NHL will not send players to Beijing Winter Olympics due to Covid-19

The Guardian says The National Hockey League will not send its players to compete in the men’s ice hockey tournament at the Beijing Olympics due to Covid-19 concerns as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads globally, ESPN reported on Tuesday.

The NHL agreed last September to pause its regular season so the world’s top players could compete in Beijing with the caveat it could withdraw if Covid-19 disruptions forced games to be rescheduled during the Olympics window.

That had begun looking increasingly likely in recent days with the NHL being forced to postpone 50 games in Canada and the United States after a growing number of players entered Covid-19 protocols while Omicron tore through professional sports leagues with fully vaccinated players testing positive.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/21/nhl-players-skipping-beijing-winter-olympics