Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics
| Ice hockey at the XXV Olympic Winter Games | |
|---|---|
 Ice hockey pictogram | |
| Venues | |
| Dates | 5–22 February |
| No. of events | 2 (1 men and 1 women) |
| Competitors | 530 from 13 nations |
| Men's ice hockey at the XXV Olympic Winter Games | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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| Women's ice hockey at the XXV Olympic Winter Games | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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.svg/20px-Flag_of_Switzerland_(Pantone).svg.png){kind=small}
| Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Qualification | ||
| men | women | |
| Tournament | ||
| men | women | |
| Rosters | ||
| men | women | |
The ice hockey competitions of the 2026 Winter Olympics was played at two venues located in the Milan cluster: the PalaItalia and one of the Fiera Milano pavilions.
The men's tournament had 12 teams competing, and the women's tournament 10.[1] Russia and Belarus were banned from competing in international championships through the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) 2026 program due to their military aggression in Ukraine.[2][3] The International Olympic Committee also ruled that Russian and Belarusian players could not compete under the banner of "Individual Neutral Athletes" (AIN) in hockey and other team events.[4]
The United States won gold medals both in the men's and women's tournaments for the first time in the finals against Canada, both in overtime, while Switzerland won bronze in the women's tournament and Finland in the men's tournament.
Medal summary
[edit]Medal table
[edit]| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | .svg/40px-Flag_of_Canada_(Pantone).svg.png){kind=small} Canada | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 |  Finland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Switzerland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (4 entries) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
Medalists
[edit]Venues
[edit]| Milan | |
|---|---|
| PalaItalia (Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena) |
Fiera Milano (Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena) |
| Capacity: 16,000 (11,800 of which for the public) | Capacity: 6,500 |
|
|
Competition schedule
[edit]Ice hockey competitions were scheduled to start one day before the opening ceremony with the following schedule:[5]
| PR | Preliminary round | PO | Playoffs | QF | Quarter-finals | SF | Semi-finals | B | Bronze-medal match | G | Gold-medal match |
Date Event |
Wed 4 | Thu 5 | Fri 6 | Sat 7 | Sun 8 | Mon 9 | Tue 10 | Wed 11 | Thu 12 | Fri 13 | Sat 14 | Sun 15 | Mon 16 | Tue 17 | Wed 18 | Thu 19 | Fri 20 | Sat 21 | Sun 22 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's tournament | PR | PR | PR | PR | PR | PO | QF | SF | B | G | ||||||||||
| Women's tournament | PR | PR | PR | PR | PR | PR | PR | QF | QF | SF | B | G | ||||||||
Men's tournament
[edit]The tournament featured twelve countries, eight qualifying through the IIHF World Ranking, the host Italy, and three through qualifying tournaments. The format remained the same as the previous four Olympics; three groups of four competed in three games to determine seeding, each played every other team in their group, followed by four rounds of elimination games. Each group winner received a bye into the second round, along with the highest ranked of the remaining teams. The remaining eight teams played an eliminating qualification game to advance to the quarter-final round. Each quarter-final winner advanced to the semi-finals, with the winners playing for the gold medal and the losers playing for the bronze.
On 2 February 2024, the IIHF announced that an agreement had been reached with the National Hockey League (NHL) for a break in its regular season to allow the league's players to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014. The NHL was originally scheduled to compete in 2022 as well but opted out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]
Qualification
[edit]Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2023 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships. The top eight joined the hosts and three qualifiers.[1]
Participating nations
[edit]The groups were established following the 2023 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships.[7] Qualifiers one, two and three are the winners of the final qualification tournaments. Their designation was determined by their qualification seeding.
| Group A | Group B | Group C |
|---|---|---|
Women's tournament
[edit]Ten countries competed in the women's tournament, six qualifying through the IIHF World Ranking, the host Italy, and three through qualifying tournaments.
Qualification
[edit]Qualification for the women's tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2024 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships.[1]
Participating nations
[edit]The groups were established following the 2024 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships. Qualifiers one, two, and three were the winners of the final qualification tournaments. Their designation was determined by their qualification seeding.
| Group A | Group B |
|---|---|
Qualification summary / Participating NOCs
[edit]| Nations | Men | Women | Athletes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada |
 |
|
48 |
 Czech Republic |
|
|
48 |
 Denmark |
|
25 | |
| Finland |
|
|
48 |
 France[a] |
|
|
48 |
 Germany |
|
|
48 |
 Italy |
|
|
48 |
 Japan |
|
23 | |
.svg/40px-Flag_of_Latvia_(3-2).svg.png){kind=small} Latvia |
|
25 | |
 Slovakia |
|
25 | |
 Sweden |
|
|
48 |
| Switzerland |
|
|
48 |
| United States |
|
|
48 |
| Total: 13 NOCs | 12 | 10 | 530 |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Qualification System – XXV Olympic Winter Games" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
- ^ "Russia and Belarus not reincorporated into 2024/2025 IIHF Championship Season". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
- ^ a b "IOC says Russian teams remain banned from '26 Winter Olympics". ESPN. Reuters. 27 May 2025. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
- ^ "Russian teams remain banned from competing at 2026 Winter Games". Reuters. 27 May 2025. Archived from the original on 28 May 2025.
- ^ "Milano Cortina 2026: Complete ice hockey schedule". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
- ^ Lev, Jacob (2 February 2024). "NHL players to return to Olympics in 2026 and 2030". CNN. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
- ^ "2026 Men's Olympic Winter Games & Qualification Tournament Program" (PDF). IIHF.com. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
External links
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| Qualifications |
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| Finals |
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