Hockey: Russia will not definitely participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Groups are known

BRATISLAVA. The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortine D’Ampezzo will be without representatives of Russia and Belarus in team competitions, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided.

The portal has been alerted to the information Sport.cz.

It is definitely so clear that Russia will not be part of the hockey tournament and instead of it, France will be presented at the event as the best team from the second cities in the Olympic qualification.

« The recommendation of the IOC Executive Committee from March 2023 concerning the teams of an athlete with a Russian passport remains valid, » said Sport.cz.

« It is based on the fact that a group of neutral individual athletes cannot be considered a team by its essence. We acknowledge that IIHF has confirmed that it will be followed by this recommendation, » he added.

Thus, only individuals such as neutral athletes will start at the nearest Winter Olympics if they meet the conditions as in the Olympic Games in Paris.

The decision thus confirmed the words of President IIHF Luca Tardiff, who told reporters on Sunday that the IOC was planning to exclude Russia from the Winter Olympics 2026.

« They recently asked us to send them a breakdown without Russia.

« IOC is the organizer – we are only dealing with the competition itself (hockey tournaments), » he said.

« We are putting pressure on them to decide, one way or another, because we are approaching the Olympics and need to know, » he concluded on Sunday.

Russia and Belarus were banned from playing at I The participation in the Winter Olympics was decided only now.

However, after the decision of the IOC, the definitive composition of groups of a male hockey tournament is already clear about a few days ago Informed the Latvian website Sportcentrs.

Slovakia will present itself in the non -participation of Russia in Milan in group B in the competition of Finland, Sweden and domestic Italy.

Group A consists of Canada, Switzerland, Czech Republic and France. The US, Germany, Latvia and Denmark will be played in Group C. The men’s hockey tournament will be played at the 2026 Winter Olympics from 11 to 22 February in Milan.