Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification explained

Qualification for the men's ice hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2023 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships. A total of 12 men's hockey teams qualified.^[1] The hosts (Italy) along with the top eight teams in the world ranking received automatic berths into the Olympics, while all other teams had an opportunity to qualify for the remaining three spots.^{[2] [3]}

Qualified teams

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Qualified
Hosts	1
2023 IIHF World Ranking	2 June 2023		8
Final qualification tournaments	29 August – 1 September 2024	Bratislava	1
		Riga	1
		Aalborg	1
Total			12

Notes

Qualification seeding

To qualify directly, a nation had to be ranked in the top eight following the 2023 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships. In the IIHF World Ranking system, ranking points from the most recent year were weighted at full value, and points from each preceding year were worth 25% less.

	Qualified directly to Olympic tournament
	Entered in Final Olympic qualification
	Entered in Round 3
	Entered in Round 2
	Entered in Round 1 (cancelled)
	Did not enter Olympic qualification

Qualifying seed	width=100	Team	WC2023 (100%)	WC2022 (75%)	OLY2022 (75%)	WC2021 (50%)	WC2020 (25%)	Total
1		1600	1160	1040	1200	1200	4150
2		1420	1200	1200	1160	1120	4080
3		1520	1120	1160	1060	1160	4050
4		1500	1100	1060	1120	1040	3940
5		1560	1020	940	1100	1020	3835
6		1440	1040	1100	960	1100	3800
7		1460	1060	1000	1040	1000	3775
8		1400	1120	960	1020	1060	3735
9		1360	1000	1120	1000	960	3690
10		1520	940	920	920	940	3610
11		1340	960	1020	900	900	3500
12		1280	880	880	880	920	3270
13		1300	900	860	840	800	3240
14		1260	860	840	840	880	3175
15		1320	860	700	940	840	3170
16		1260	920	800	780	780	3135
17		1220	800	820	740	740	2990
Host		1160	840	740	820	860	2970
18		1240	780	780	720	720	2950
19		1200	820	660	860	820	2945
20		1140	740	720	760	760	2805
21		1180	700	760	700	660	2790
22		1120	720	640	660	700	2645
23		1100	760	600	680	680	2630
24		1080	680	680	640	640	2580
25		1040	600	900	500	480	2535
26		1060	660	620	600	600	2470
27		1020	640	580	620	620	2400
28		1000	580	560	580	560	2285
29		980	620	500	560	580	2245
30		920	560	540	540	540	2170
31		960	540	520	520	500	2140
		880	520	420	460	460	1950
32		860	480	480	440	420	1925
		900	560	—	480	520	1710
33		800	420	380	340	340	1655
34		740	400	360	400	360	1600
35		760	340	460	300	300	1585
36		840	360	320	200	220	1505
		820	440	—	420	440	1470
37		720	300	440	240	240	1455
		780	440	—	360	400	1390
		640	280	300	280	260	1280
38		660	220	340	140	160	1190
		700	320	—	260	280	1140
39		600	160	400	100	100	1095
40		560	220	280	180	180	1070
41		580	200	260	160	140	1040
42		680	240	—	220	200	1020
43		440	80	240	120	120	770
		540	120	—	40	—	650
		500	100	—	80	80	635
44		0	460	—	380	380	630
45		520	140	—	—	—	625
		480	100	—	60	60	600
			360	—	320	320	510
		460	—	—	—	—	460
		420	—	—	—	—	420

Olympic qualification Round 1

The round was cancelled. It was meant to be held between 8 and 12 November 2023, and consist of two groups of five teams. Teams entered in Group N were United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Georgia, while teams entered in Group O were Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Africa and Iran.^[3]

Chinese Taipei, Thailand and South Africa accepted invitations to compete in Round 2. Georgia also entered Round 2 after the withdrawal of Mexico.

Olympic qualification Round 2

Twelve countries played in three tournaments to determine qualifiers for the next round. The three tournament winners were ranked by their qualification seedings and entered the next round as qualifier seven, eight and nine.

Group K

The Group K tournament was held in Reykjavík, Iceland, from 14 to 17 December 2023.^{[4] [5]}

All times are local (UTC±0).

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Group L

The Group L tournament was held in Tilburg, Netherlands, from 15 to 17 December 2023.^{[6] [7]} Mexico was entered into this group but withdrew and was replaced by Georgia.^[3]

All times are local (UTC+1).

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Group M

The Group M tournament was held in Belgrade, Serbia, from 14 to 17 December 2023.^{[8] [9]}

All times are local (UTC+1).

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Olympic qualification Round 3

Twelve countries played in three tournaments to determine qualifiers for the next round. Each tournament winner was ranked by their qualification seeding and entered the next round as qualifier four, five, or six. The tournaments were played between 8 and 11 February 2024.

Group G

The tournament was held in Budapest, Hungary.

All times are local (UTC+1).

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Group H

The tournament was held in Cardiff, Great Britain.

All times are local (UTC+0).

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Group J

The tournament was held in Sosnowiec, Poland.

All times are local (UTC+1).

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Final Olympic qualification

Twelve countries played in three tournaments to determine the qualifying teams for the Olympic tournament. The tournaments were played between 29 August and 1 September 2024. On February 12, 2024, the IIHF announced that Belarus was disqualified from Olympic qualification forcing the redrawing of the final round and admitting the best second place finisher from the previous round, Hungary.^{[10] [11]}

If Russia is not allowed to participate in the Olympic tournament, France will take its place as the best-ranked second place team.^[12]

Group D

The tournament was held in Bratislava, Slovakia.

All times are local (UTC+2).

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Group E

The tournament was held in Riga, Latvia.

All times are local (UTC+3).

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Group F

The tournament was held in Aalborg, Denmark.

All times are local (UTC+2).

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Notes and References

1. Web site: Qualification System - XXV Olympic Winter Games - Milano Cortina 2026 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Ice Hockey. 29 March 2023. www.olympics.com/. IIHF. 11 August 2024.
2. News: 2026 Olympic men’s qualifiers set. IIHF. 31 October 2023. 31 October 2023.
3. Web site: 2026 MEN’S OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES & QUALIFICATION TOURNAMENT PROGRAM. blob.iihf.com. 2023-10-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20231031133918/https://blob.iihf.com/iihf-media/iihfmvc/media/2023/owgq/2026_owg_men_qualification_hosting_231023.pdf. 2023-10-31. dead. 2023-11-01.
4. Web site: IIHF - Home 2024 MEN’S OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY QUALIFICATION ROUND 2, Group K. IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation.
5. Web site: 2024 Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification Round 2 Group K. stats.iihf.com.
6. Web site: IIHF - Home 2024 MEN’S OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY QUALIFICATION ROUND 2, Group L. IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation.
7. Web site: 2024 Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification Round 2 Group L. stats.iihf.com.
8. Web site: IIHF - Home 2024 MEN’S OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY QUALIFICATION ROUND 2, Group M. IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation.
9. Web site: 2024 Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification Round 2 Group M. stats.iihf.com.
10. Web site: IIHF upholds ban on Russia, Belarus for 2024-25 season. tsn.ca. 12 February 2024. 12 February 2024.
11. Web site: Big change in Olympic qualification! Slovakia will have new opponents, a big derby awaits us (in Slovak). Šport.sk. 12 February 2024. 12 February 2024.
12. Web site: 2026 Men’s Winter Olympic Games Qualifications . IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation . 2024-08-24 . 2024-09-15.