4 days ago
2026 Milan Cortina Olympic hockey groups set for men's, women's tournaments
The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic men's and women's hockey groups are set with France replacing Russia in both tournaments.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) confirmed the groups Monday, noting it is following an IOC recommendation in place since March 2023 that athletes from Russia and Belarus should be banned from team events in Olympic sports.
Russia and Belarus have been suspended from IIHF tournaments, including the annual world championships, since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus were allowed to compete as individual neutral athletes in some sports at the 2024 Paris Olympics upon review and invitation by the IOC, but not in any team sports.
After 2026 Olympic hockey qualifying ended, the IIHF announced two possible fields for the Milan Cortina Games: one with Russia in both tournaments (qualifying via world ranking) in case its suspension would be lifted and one without Russia in both tournaments.
France was the next-highest-ranked team in qualifying for both men (first Olympic appearance since 2002) and women (first Olympic appearance ever).
2026 Winter Olympics men's hockey groups
Group A: Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, France (replaces Russia)
Group B: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Italy
Group C: U.S., Germany, Latvia, Denmark
Teams of players from Russia won Olympic men's hockey gold in 2018 and silver in 2022, with no NHL participation either time. The Russian name, flag and anthem were not allowed at either Games due to the nation's anti-doping violations.
NHL players are expected to return to the Olympics in 2026 for the first time since 2014.
Canada won the last two Olympic tournaments with NHL players in 2010 and 2014, plus won this past February's 4 Nations Face-Off — a best-on-best tournament with NHL players from Canada, the U.S., Sweden and Finland.
A team of players from Russia, the Unified Team (1992) or the Soviet Union played in every Olympic men's tournament from 1956 through 2022, winning nine of those 18 tournaments.
2026 Winter Olympics women's hockey groups
Group A: Canada, U.S., Finland, Czechia, Switzerland
Group B: Japan, Sweden, Germany, Italy, France (replaces Russia)
The Russia women's hockey team, which has never won an Olympic medal, would have been placed in the lower-ranked of the two Olympic women's tournament groups had it been allowed to participate.
The seven Olympic women's tournaments held so far have been won by either Canada (five times) or the U.S. (twice). Only once has a team other than Canada or the U.S. made the final — when Sweden lost to Canada in 2006.
At the 2022 Olympics and recent world championships, all of the Group A teams — the world's five highest-ranked teams — automatically qualified for the quarterfinals.
Nick Zaccardi,
