TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China's controversial men's hockey team, which featured a large proportion of foreign-born players, crashed out of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics without winning any games.

Although China automatically qualified for both men's and women's hockey as the host of the Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) discussed jettisoning the Chinese squad due to its poor performance in tournaments prior to the games. However, the fact that the NHL decided to keep its players out of the Olympics over COVID concerns gave the Chinese team better odds at being competitive.

Given the dearth of local talent and in an attempt to give a quick boost to the team's performance, China recruited 15 players born in North America to complete on its team of 25. Of these foreign-born athletes, 11 are of Chinese heritage.

Similarly, 12 of the 23 players on the Chinese women's team are foreign-born. Chinese law does not allow dual citizenship. In theory, the hockey players would have to renounce their original countries to participate.

However, it appears China has bent its own nationality rules to quickly import foreign talent. When asked about the status of his nationality, Michigan-born goalie Jeremy Smith told reporters last week, "I did not renounce my citizenship. They never asked me to." The coach of the women's team, Brian Idalski, dodged the same question about Canadian-born Hannah Miller's nationality status by saying, "I really don't want to answer that," reported Reuters.

Although there were glimmers of hope when it took an early lead against the U.S. and scored two goals on Germany, the team was quickly overwhelmed by superior talent in the four games it played. In the end, it lost all four facing the U.S., Germany, and Canada, scoring only four goals while allowing 23.

The women's team fared better, winning two games and losing two, with the margin of victory and defeat not exceeding two goals. Nevertheless, a loss to Sweden eliminated the women's team in Group B play.