In a recent unusual update, ice hockey coach Patrick Fischer has admitted that he used a certificate to falsely claim he was vaccinated against COVID-19 to avoid China’s travel restrictions for the 2022 Winter Olympics, where he led his country.
In a statement, Fischer, who is in charge of the Swiss team, said they made a “serious mistake in this matter” by traveling to Beijing with the men’s team using false paperwork.
“I’m very sorry if I let people down with this situation,” Fischer said. “I was in an extraordinary personal crisis because I didn’t want to get vaccinated.”
“At the same time, I definitely didn’t want to let my team down in the Olympic Games,” he said.
Additionally, Swiss public broadcaster SRF said it confronted Fischer with documents showing that he was fined about 39,000 Swiss francs ($50,000) by local authorities in 2023 for document forgery after purchasing certificates on social media and went public with his admission shortly after.
World Hockey Championship:
Swiss ice hockey is set to host the world championships in May, but is facing questions over a coach’s fake Olympic paperwork.
Fischer is one of Switzerland’s most successful hockey coaches ever. Since 2015 he has won three silver medals with the team at three Olympics as well as three World Championships.
His team reached the quarterfinals at the 2022 Olympics, where COVID-19 testing was a requirement, and the National Hockey League remained sidelined due to the pandemic.
Leading up to the 2022 Olympics, China had some of the strictest COVID-19 rules in the world, insisting that any athletes going to the Games must either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or sit out three weeks of quarantine in a hotel, as Swiss snowboarder Patrizia Kummer did.
Notably, Fischer, the hockey chief, was already set to step down following the news and the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation said it considered the matter closed.
