The IIHF today, at their end-of-tournament press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, confirmed a number of items outlined at this week’s IIHF Congress, including the traditional awarding of tournament hosts for future events, and confirmation that the IIHF has submitted plans to the International Olympic Committee to proceed with excluding Russian men’s and women’s hockey teams from the 2026 Olympics, set to begin in nine months in Milan, Italy.

As Russia and Belarus have been banned from IIHF competition since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, just four days after the 2022 Beijing Games had ended, there was much speculation on the IIHF’s action, as this decision would also fall into the realm of the International Olympic Committee. After news broke Friday that the IIHF had voted to exclude Russia from the tournaments, IIHF President Luc Tardif today confirmed that the final decision falls to the IOC, but that the IIHF has submitted tournament schedules that would exclude Russia from the men’s or women’s teams would be eligible to compete in Milan, with both being replaced by the next highest-ranked team, which happens to be France in both tournaments.

Dating back to the Soviet Union’s Olympic debut in 1956, if the IOC decides to bar Russia, this will mark the first time that the Russian men’s squad (which carries the Soviet lineage) will not compete at the Olympics at all, and the first time the women’s team will not compete at the Games since their debut in 2002. While the Soviet / Russian club has played under different names due to political upheaval (Unified Team, 1992) or doping scandals (Olympic Athletes From Russia, 2018; Russian Olympic Committee, 2022), they have always had a presence at the Games, potentially marking the first time in seventy years that no Russian hockey contingent of any kind will be at the Games. For the men’s team this would be particularly stinging, given that NHL players will be eligible for the Games for the first time since 2014, with Russia a sure contender for their first best-on-best Gold medal.

In other announced news, Slovakia was formally announced as the hosts of the 2029 IIHF World Championship, with the Zimný Štadión Ondreja Nepelu in Bratislava and Steel Aréna in Košice awarded hosting duties for 11-27 May 2029, winning as the sole candidate running unopposed. This will mark Slovakia’s third time as hosts since independence in 1993, with Bratislava and Košice splitting hosting duties in a similar arrangement in both 2011 and 2019. Bratislava twice co-hosted the World Championship while part of Czechoslovakia, in 1959 and 1992.

The IIHF Congress also confirmed hosts for lower Divisions across all competitions in 2026, but surprisingly did not confirm the host for the 2026 Women’s World Championship, which for the first time in an Olympic year is set to remain on its usual April schedule. Be sure to check Upcoming Tournaments for updates as they are announced.

Photo Credit: Beijing 2022 – IIHF – HHOF – IOC