Olympic hockey finalists will share the gold medal if teams are forced to miss out at the Tokyo Games.
That is the scenario world hockey officials hope doesn’t arise ahead of these unprecedented Games, FIH chief executive Thierry Weil told reporters at a virtual meeting on Friday.
“These Games are different from normal Games,” he said. “This Olympics will go into the history book.
“It will not be the same Games as before. The athletes and all associated with the Games know very well that their and public’s health is at stake.”
Decisions to withdraw from competition will rest with the respective nations in Tokyo, while a team can still keep competing even with multiple Covid cases.
Each sports federation has summoned rulings under the Sports Specific Regulations for these unprecedented Olympics.
According to the rulings, if a nation can’t play a Pool game, a 5-0 win will be awarded to the opposing team, while a 0-0 draw will be deemed if both teams can’t play.
Weil said: “There are no numbers fixed. It’s the team’s discretion when to withdraw. If a team has for example six, seven positive cases they still can play. Until a complete team is affected, I feel withdrawal won’t happen.”
Other rulings include defeated semi-finalists playing for gold if a team playing in the final is impacted by Covid, while the bronze medal match would not take place.
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