South Korea women’s ice hockey players on Monday bid a teary farewell to their North Korean teammates on the unified Korean team for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, a day after they marched in together at the closing ceremony.
The historic joint hockey team — the first unified Korean squad in any sport at any Olympics — was assembled on January 25, five days after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved an inter-Korean agreement on its formation, reports Yonhap News Agency.
The South Korean team of 23 players was joined by 12 players from North Korea, with the South’s head coach, Sarah Murray, in charge.
“It just shows what we did was really special,” Murray said.
“We can feel this way about the players and we’ve only been together for thr ee weeks. It says something about our team. It’s really special.”