China's unlikely Olympic ice hockey journey, one of the biggest curiosities of the Beijing Games, ended with four losses in four matches, temporary citizenships, and an uncertain future.
The home team relied entirely on a roster of players from the Kunlun Red Star franchise in Russia's top league and its core of 15 foreign-born players. They logged almost all of the ice time and kept the team competitive, but fuelled constant questions about their citizenship, which they mostly avoided.
"From what I've heard, we plan on continuing the programme and we're going to be making a push to keep growing the game in China and help China move up the world rankings," said California-born Cory Kane, who joined Kunlun five years ago as a "heritage" player - he has Chinese roots through his mother.
Kunlun has had a turbulent run since its founding in 2016 by Hong Kong-based Billy Ngok, soon after Beijing won its bid to host the Olympics. "It was really wild, like there would be games where guys play really well. In the next game they would not even play because they want to play a native Chinese guy or mainland Chinese guy to get them experience playing games," said a former player who declined to be identified.
But after what one described as "back and forth" discussion, many decided to proceed with their applications for Chinese citizenship. The player said he did not have to turn over his passport, and had not received a Chinese one.
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