We’re less than 20 months away from the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Starting today I will be doing a 3 part series on the 2022 games. Today’s topic will be regarding the format, qualification, etc.
One thing people know about me is that I love hockey, but one thing you may not know is that I’m massively into and have a passion for international hockey and international sporting events in general. I always head right to the IIHF section of the Hockey Hall of Fame when I go there (as seen in the picture).
Seeing players represent their nation brings out the best the game of hockey has to offer. International events, such as the Olympic Games feel different than watching the NHL or any other hockey league. There’s always national pride on the line, plenty of unexpected results, such as Belarus defeating Sweden in the quarter finals of the 2002 Olympics. It’s always entertaining when players bring their A game and show their passion for playing for their country.
A good chunk of people who watch international hockey have no clue how formats or qualifying works, so today we’re going to look at the remaining qualifying games, and the format for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
12 countries are represented at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. The venues are: Beijing National Indoor Stadium (18,000 seat capacity), and Wukesong Arena (10,000 seat capacity for Olympics). The host nation, China, gets an automatic spot, as well as the top 8 ranked nations using the IIHF world rankings.
The other 3 spots are determined through 4 qualifying rounds consisting of 36 nations. 7 countries (Australia, Belgium, Georgia, New Zealand, North Korea, South Africa, and Turkmenistan) chose not to participate in Olympic Qualifying.
Currently we are at the final round of qualifying, which begins in August 2021. It was originally scheduled for August 2020, but was postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In this phase of qualifying we usually tend to see plenty of NHL players participate such as Anze Kopitar for Slovenia, Tomas Tatar for Slovakia, Fredrik Andersen for Denmark, as well as many others.
The final round of Olympic Qualifying has 12 teams placed into 3 groups of 4. The groups are as follows (IIHF ranking in brackets).
Group 1: Slovakia (9), Belarus (14), Austria (15), Poland (22).
Group 2: Latvia (10), France (13), Italy (16), Hungary (21).
Group 3: Norway (11), Denmark (12), South Korea (17), Slovenia (18).
Each group will play a round robin format (each team plays 3 games, 1 against each other nation in their group). At the end of the round robin, each group winner will advance to the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Here are the groups for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, that were released earlier this month by the IIHF and International Olympic Committee (IOC). Their IIHF ranking is in brackets.
Group A: Canada (1), USA (6), Germany (7), China (32).
Group B: Russia (2), Czech Republic (5), Switzerland (8), Group 3 Qualifier.
Group C: Finland (3), Sweden (4), Group 1 Qualifier, Group 2 Qualifier.
A round robin format is used to determine seeing for the playoff round, which all 12 nations advance to.
The 3 group winners and the best ranked 2nd place nation get a bye to the quarter final. Nations seeded 5th-12th advance to the qualification playoff round. The games would be: 5th vs 12th; 6th vs 11th; 7th vs 10th; and 8th vs 9th.
The 4 qualification playoff winners are re-seeded ahead of the quarter final. After the quarter final, the 4 winners advance to the semi final, then the winners of the 2 semi final games advance to the gold medal game, while the losers advance to the bronze medal game.
Thanks for reading and thanks for the support as always. Part 2 of this series will be out Thursday where I dive deep into detail about the NHL’s participation, what China and the Chinese Ice Hockey Federation have done in preparation for the Olympics, as well as what I think will happen through qualifying, and group stage/playoff rounds. Sort of a very very early prediction!
-Cooper.