4:00 PM
The World Junior Championship will not be held in the year 2022, because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases among players.
IIHF officials held a meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss how to keep the tournament going despite the COVID issues, but they decided cancellation was the best path.
Three tournament games were forfeited in the past 24 hours after positive tests started popping up. The USA forfeited its game against Switzerland on Tuesday after two players contracted the virus, and the Czech Republic forfeited its game against Russia on Wednesday because of positive cases.
IIHF President Luc Tardif said that they owed it to the teams to create the conditions for the event to work. This was not enough. We have to take some time and focus on getting the players and staff back home.
For the second year in a row, the tournament was held in Canada, but unlike in the previous year, players and staff were not in a bubble environment that would provide extra protection against the virus. Teams stayed in hotels open to the public, and with the highly contagious omicron variant, even the most vigilant adherence to protocols couldn't completely prevent illnesses.
The bubble environment wasn't as secure as the tournament organizers said. A large wedding party was hosted at the hotel by teams in Red Deer.
Hockey Canada supports the decision to cancel the rest of the World Junior Hockey Championship because of the positive cases of the H1N1 swine flu that have been reported in the area. We sympathize with the participants who will not be able to realize their dream of representing their countries on the world stage because of this decision.
