Olympia 2018: Korea celebrates its united ice hockey team – with Mickie Krause

The organisers showed little appreciation for the historical dimension at the second Olympic performance of the Korean ice hockey team. More than 4000 spectators celebrated the players from north and south despite the second 0:8-catch in Pyeongchang and shouted:”We are one” The stadium direction played Mickie Krause. At every goal for the opponent Sweden “Düp Düp” booms from the loudspeakers – with the familiar slippery text of the stupid bard.

While the Koreans enthusiastically supported their first joint team 70 years after the division and experienced history up close, Krause asked:”All clear on the little bear, all clear in the bra?” A total of eight times.

The local organizing committee is responsible for the music selection, said a member of the IIHF World Association on SID request. The fact that Mickie Krause is not a Swede has apparently not been said until Pyeongchang.

Nobody noticed the Fauxpas apart from a few German-speaking viewers, even if the Swedish fans were surprised by the music.

The Koreans didn’t even care about the second defeat in the second game this evening. The cheerleaders of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un clapped and sang, started La Ola. The spectators waved standard flags and tuned into the chants.

“It’s bigger than hockey,”said Park Yoon Jung,”it’s great to be part of something that brings people together through sport.” The 25-year-old girl was born in South Korea and adopted by an American family at the age of four months. As Marissa Brandt, she grew up in the USA before returning to her native country as a national hockey player and taking her Korean name again.”We are one. They’re family now,”she said about the players from the north.

Three of them had been put up by the Canadian coach Sarah Murray – but not Jong Su Hyon, the torchlight bearer of the opening ceremony, who had spoken from the heart of millions of Koreans after the opening match:”Together we are stronger than when we are separated”.

The team from number 22 and number 25 of the world rankings against the Olympic runners-up in 2006 and third place in 2002 was overtaxed. Maja Nylen Persson (4th), Elin Lundberg (10th), Johanna Fällman (11th), Erica Uden Johansson (18th), Pernilla Winberg (25th/42nd), Emma Nordin (42nd) and Rebecca Stenberg (46th) scored the goals for the Swedes.