After confusion arose from the IIHF announcing during their annual Congress last week that Russia would not participate at the 2026 Milan Olympics, only to backtrack and say the final decision laid with the IOC, the IOC confirmed today that this is in fact the case, and Russian teams would be banned from the Games.

In responding to the reports coming from the IIHF Congress, as well as supposed discussions between the IIHF and Russian Ice Hockey Federation, the IOC stated that “The IOC Executive Board recommendation from March 2023 with regard to teams of athletes with a Russian passport remains in place. It is based on the fact that, by definition, a group of Individual Neutral Athletes cannot be considered a team. We take note that the IIHF has confirmed that it will follow this recommendation.”

While individual athletes may still be eligible to compete in Milan under the banner of Individual Neutral Athletes, similar to individual competitors at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, any team sports, including ice hockey, would be exempt from this distinction, and thus the hockey teams for both men and women would ultimately be ineligible. While Belarus had already missed out on qualifying for the men’s tournament, this seals the fate of the in-question Russian teams, who will be replaced by their French counterparts in both tournaments.

This now confirms that 2026 will mark the first time that the Russian men’s squad (which carries the Soviet lineage) will not compete at the Olympics since their debut in 1956, and the first time the women’s team will not compete at the Games since their debut in 2002. The men’s team, who are nine-time Olympic champions (tied for the most in history), will lose out on the opportunity to field an NHL roster for the first time since 2014, missing what would likely have been Alexander Ovechkin’s last chance at Olympic Gold. While the women’s team was not nearly as powerful, and mired directly in scandal unlike their male counterparts, not having any Russian contingent for the first time in seven decades marks the end of an era in international hockey.

Photo Credit: Beijing 2022 – IIHF – HHOF – IOC