Ice Hockey Officials Threatening to Boycott 1992 Winter Olympics

Hockey could be pulled from the 1992 Winter Olympics if the issue over playing facilities is not resolved, International Ice Hockey Federation officials said Tuesday.

“It’s possible that we won’t take part in the Olympic tournament,” Gunther Sabetzki, president of the IIHF, said at a news conference. “We are not prepared to have the Olympic tournament played in one place.”

French organizers at Albertville at first promised to build two arenas for the Olympic tournament. But they said last September that they wanted to hold the games in an existing arena in neighboring Meribel, and use a small arena in Courchevel, another Alpine resort, only for practice.

“To organize an Olympic tournament in one arena in 12 days is impossible,” said Miroslav Subrt, a IIHF council member. “We would have to play six games daily.”