Hockey coach who admitted using false COVID-19 vaccine certificate at Olympics is fired

ZURICH (AP) — A Swiss hockey coach who admitted he used a certificate falsely claiming he’d been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get around China’s travel restrictions for the 2022 Winter Olympics has been fired.

In a statement late Monday, head coach Patrick Fischer said he made a “serious mistake in this matter” by travelling to Beijing with the Switzerland men’s team using false paperwork.

The Swiss Ice Hockey Federation initially supported him, saying the case was closed because he had admitted to his mistake. But that changed Wednesday with news of his dismissal.

“The case is legally closed but has triggered a public debate about values and trust, which the federation takes very seriously,” federation president Urs Kessler said in a statement.

“From today’s perspective, our initial assessment — that the matter was concluded — ⁠was too short-sighted. This is about values and respect, that are fundamental to Swiss Ice Hockey and which Patrick Fischer did not uphold in 2022.”

Fischer had said before he was fired that “I’m very sorry if I’ve disappointed people with this situation.”

“I was in an extraordinary personal crisis because I didn’t want to be vaccinated,” he added. “At the same time I certainly didn’t want to let my team down at the Olympic Games.”

Swiss public broadcaster SRF said it confronted Fischer with documents showing he was fined nearly 39,000 Swiss francs ($50,000) by local authorities in 2023 for document forgery after buying the certificate on social media. SRF said he went public with his admission shortly after.

Switzerland hosts the world championship next month. Fischer was already due to step down after that.

Jan Cadieux, Switzerland’s former under-20 coach who had already been announced as Fischer’s replacement beginning next year, will take over in the new job immediately, the federation said.

Fischer was one of Switzerland’s most successful hockey coaches. He’d been in the post since 2015 and took the team to three Olympics as well as winning three world championship silver medals.

His team reached the quarterfinals at the 2022 Olympics, where COVID-19 testing was a requirement and the NHL stayed away because of the pandemic.

Ahead of the 2022 Olympics, China had some of the strictest COVID-19 rules in the world. It insisted any athletes heading to the Games had to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or sit out a three-week quarantine in a hotel, as Swiss snowboarder Patrizia Kummer did.

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