Russia's potential replacement for 2026 Winter Olympics has been determined
Russia's potential replacement for 2026 Winter Olympics has been determined, if they're still banned by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The 2026 Winter Olympic groups for the men's hockey tournament are officially set after the final qualifying event wrapped up on Sunday afternoon. Denmark, Latvia and the defending bronze medalists, Slovakia, all booked their spot in Milano-Cortina 2026, but another nation from the final qualifying tournament may also be joining them in Italy in just over 17 months.
With Russia's status for the 2026 Winter Olympics to be determined by the International Ice Hockey Federation in February, if they happened to still be banned, they'll be replaced by France.
France would be Russia's replacement based on goal differential at the final qualifying tournament over the last four days. France, who was in group with Latvia, Slovenia and Ukraine, finished second and had a goal differential of +6 (14 GF, 8 GA). The other two second place finishers in the tournament, Kazakhstan and Norway, had goal differentials of +2 and +3, respectively.
If the IIHF decides to uphold their ban on Russia, this will mark the 11th Olympic appearance for France and their first since Salt Lake City in 2002 where they finished last after losing 7-1 to Slovakia in the 13th place game. France's best finish at the Olympics was 5th, on three separate occasions - 1920, 1924 and 1928.
With NHL players returning to the Winter Olympics in 2026, this would be a big moment for the French as they'd potentially have one of their best players ever involved, that being 39-year-old Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. Other notable names we could see at the 2026 Winter Olympics for France include Alexandre Texier, Stephane da Costa, Tim Bozon, Antoine Keller and Pierrick Dube.
On the other side of the equation, Russia not being allowed to participate means we'll likely never see the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and others on the Olympic stage. The ban of Russia is completely understandable, it's hard to argue that, but for NHLers wanting to play for their nation, it wouldn't sit well with them at all.
At this time, it's unclear if France will be put directly into Group C (where Russia is currently) or if the groups will change, based on IIHF rankings, for a better competitive balance.
Here are the groups as of today, September 1st, along with their current IIHF ranking:
Group A: Canada (1), Sweden (7), Switzerland (5), Italy (20).Group B: Finland (3), Germany (8), Czechia (4), Denmark (11).Group C: Russia (2), United States (6), Slovakia (9), Latvia (10).
| POLL | ||
2 SEPTEMBRE | 175 ANSWERS Russia's potential replacement for 2026 Winter Olympics has been determined If Russia is banned, who will win Olympic gold in 2026? | ||
| Canada | 121 | 69.1 % |
| United States | 43 | 24.6 % |
| Sweden | 5 | 2.9 % |
| Finland | 6 | 3.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
