Lausanne (AFP)
The participation of a unified Korean women's team in the Olympic Games field hockey tournament at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 "is not excluded," said the International Federation (FIH) Thursday, although no unified team has been included in the the times for qualifying.
"We did not receive an official request from the South Korean Federation or the North Korean Hockey Federation, before the draw held on Monday" to line up a unified team in the last two qualifying matches. said Thierry Weil, general director of the FIH, based in Lausanne.
It is therefore the team from South Korea that will face Spain on October 25 and 26 in Valencia, to clinch its qualifications for the Olympics.
However, "the participation of a unified Korean women's team at the Tokyo Games is, in our view, not excluded," he added.
"Indeed, if the South and North Korean federations make a request in this direction at a later stage" and the International Olympic Committee "is ready to accept it, we will support it because we are in favor," added M Weil, recalling that "the FIH is convinced that sport can play a major role in building a better world".
By the end of May, South Korea had indicated that it was abandoning its idea to present a joint team with the North in women's field hockey in Tokyo, due to Pyongyang's lack of cooperation.
The IOC, for its part, has always supported the idea of unified Korean teams at the Tokyo Olympics. In February, the IOC announced that it was considering the participation of unified teams in four sports, namely basketball, field hockey, judo and rowing.
The announcement was made at a meeting in Lausanne with South and North Korean representatives to study a joint bid by the two Koreas for the organization of the summer Olympics in 2032.
After years of intense tension, the two Koreas marched under a single flag at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games and a unified Korean team participated in the women's ice hockey tournament.
© 2019 AFP