Quote:
Originally Posted by driveway
They are far and away the most high-profile athletes attending the games as the Men's Hockey Tournament is the crown jewel of the Winter Olympics. Would NHL athletes staying home bring the right kind of attention to this issue?
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Don't know about that. Shawn White, Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller, Apollo Anton Ohno and a handful of other Americans probably have a higher profile in the US. Then there are other famous athletes from other countries. The only place where the hockey players themselves are potentially the highest profile are Canada, Russia, Czech, Sweden, Slovakia and Finland. Outside of Russia, those are all very small countries.
The mens tournament might be the highest profile event (not even sure about that, but I could see it) just like the marathon is in the summer games, but the players themselves aren't the highest profile athletes to most of the world. Similar to the runners in the marathon.