33 nations apply to take part in the Sochi Olympics
07 Feb 2012 | Henrik Lundqvist
The IIHF has received entry applications from 33 nations for the Ice Hockey Tournaments at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. 32 nations for the men's tournament and 24 for the women's.
The final list of participating nations will be known at the 2012 IIHF Congress.
The 2012 IIHF World ranking (known after all 2012 World Championships are played) will decide which countries qualify automatically. For men, the top-9 nations won't have to play qualification rounds. For women - top-6. Three more men's teams and two women's teams will be determined through a series of qualification tournaments.
Nations that applied sorted according to the 2011 IIHF World Ranking:
MenRussia
Finland
Sweden
Canada
Czech Republic
USA
Switzerland
Germany
Norway
Slovakia
Belarus
Latvia
Denmark
France
Austria
Kazakhstan
Italy
Slovenia
Ukraine
Hungary
Great Britain
Japan
Poland
Lithuania
Croatia
Romania
Spain
Serbia
Korea
Mexico
Israel
Bosnia-Herzegovina
WomenUSA
Canada
Finland
Sweden
Russia
Switzerland
Kazakhstan
Slovakia
China
Germany
Japan
Norway
Latvia
Czech Republic
Austria
France
Italy
Great Britain
Slovenia
Denmark
Hungary
Korea
Poland
Spain