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PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (WOOD) –The Olympics have a history of bringing together sports and politics. And the PyeongChang games are no exception.
Coach Sarah Murray is right in the middle of the controversy between North Korea and South Korea.
As the daughter of an NHL coach, Murray grew up around the game of hockey. So no matter where her travels take her, as long as she’s on a sheet of ice, she’s at home – even in South Korea.
That’s because three weeks before the Olympic Winter Games began, Murray was thrust into one of the biggest dramas in PyeongChang: North and South Korea — two countries that do not get along.
Murray agreed to coach a unified women’s hockey team.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. I thought it was going to be really hard to get the two teams to mesh well. The first day we were sitting at different tables, we were in different areas and then we started talking about hockey and then everyone starting talking together.”
Nobody expects the Korean team to medal in PyeongChang. But even if they go winless in this tournament, their significance can’t be understated.
“Hockey really does bring people together, as cliché as it is. Sports bring people together,” Murray said. The impact and how this situation is — to me, they’re just our team.”