Olympic qual­i­fi­ca­tion: Austria to face Latvia, France and a qual­i­fier

The top 8 nations in the IIHF World Ranking have already secured their Olympic tickets. Based on the current rankings, they are: Canada, Finland, Russia, USA, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Czechia. The XXV Winter Olympic Games will take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in Cortina d´Ampezzo and Milan, with the fashion capital hosting the Olympic ice hockey tournament. Hosts Italy have also qualified directly, meaning that the final three tickets will be contested in the final Olympic qualification at the end of summer 2024.

Three groups of four nations will contest the final qualification tournament from 29 August to 01 September 2024. The winner of each group will advance to the Olympic Games.

Austria will face Latvia, bronze medallists at the 2023 World Championship, as well as France, another established top-flight nation. The group will be completed by a qualifier from Olympic qualification round 3, which will be played during the February break. Latvia will host qualification Group E. Riga has been announced as the venue, having already served as a co-host city at the 2023 World Championship.

Changes possible

Russia and Belarus were included when drawing up both the preliminary-round groups for the Olympic Games themselves and the individual qualification rounds. Should the two nations be excluded from the 2026 Winter Games due to the war of aggression against Ukraine, a new allocation will be required.

Slovakia, currently ninth in the world rankings, would qualify directly for the Olympic Games should Russia be excluded. This would mean that the entire final Olympic qualification, in which Belarus is seeded in a group with Slovakia, would have to be redrawn. A decision on the participation or exclusion of Russia and Belarus is expected in spring 2024, before the World Championship in May.

Head Coach Roger Bader: "Our goal is to qualify for the upcoming 2026 Olympic Games. Given the group, this will not be an easy task, but I am convinced that we can achieve it. Given the still uncertain situation regarding Russia and Belarus, we will wait to see how developments unfold over the coming months. Our current focus is on the Germany Cup in Landshut next week."

Preliminary-round and qualification allocation for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games