The Chairman of the International Ice Hockey Federation told reporters that the International Olympic Committee plans to exclude Russia from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Luke Tardiff was quoted on Sunday on the subject of Russian participation in future events by hockeynews.se and hokej.cz – mainly matching and cortina d’Maypezo, next winter game in Italy.
“IOC is the organizer – we only deal with the competition (hockey tournament),” said Tardiff. “We are pressurizing them to make a decision, in a way or another, because we are getting closer to the Olympics and we need to know.”
“Recently he asked us to send a program without Russia, so where we are. The official statement is pending, but the IOC has told us that they are informing the Russian Olympic Committee that they are not participating in the Olympics.”
Russia was stopped from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris after the country’s 2022 Ukraine invasion. The country’s individual athletes were allowed to compete, but not under the flag of their country.
The official IOC is yet to be announced. Belarus, which is associated with Russia, is also expected to be kept out of the Olympics again.
Russia hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and won 46 gold medals in six Winter Games. The Soviet Union won 78 gold medals.
Winter Olympics begin in February, and a lot of preparation is already going on. Men and women’s ice hockey teams have already been selected and divided into their groups for competition without Russia and Belarus.
-Bield level media
