Ice Hockey at the 2022 Winter Olympics

Though they previously reached an agreement to do so, rising cases of COVID-19 in the global pandemic precluded National Hockey League (NHL) players from participating in the Olympics for the second consecutive time in a last-minute decision made just over two months before the start of the Beijing 2022 games. As with PyeongChang 2018, this made most of the world’s best ice hockey players unavailable; in addition to Canadians and Americans, most of the best European players were also playing in the NHL. This late development made the podium slightly more unpredictable; in the end, Finland would defeat Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to win its first ever Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament since they first competed in 1952. In another first, Slovakia won the bronze, their first ever medal in ice hockey and in an Olympic Winter Games team event.

The women’s tournament, like every other year, was expected to come down to Canada and the United States in the gold medal match in a continuation of their storied rivalry dating back to the first women’s tournament in 1998. Both countries had contested the gold medal in every year except 2006, and either one had won the gold in every year since its introduction. The United States were the defending gold medallists, winning in a shootout over Canada in PyeongChang 2018. Canada were the defending world champions, recently winning against the United States in Calgary, their first defeat of their rivals since winning gold in Sochi 2014. In the final, Canada, who had not lost a single match in the whole tournament, continued their perfect run by defeating the United States by a score of 3-2. The bronze medal was won by Finland, defeating Switzerland.

The two venues used to host ice hockey games were National Indoor Stadium (Guojia Tiyuguan) and Wukesong Sports Center (Beijing Aolinpike Lanqiuguan), both of which were constructed for the 2008 Olympics and hosted artistic gymnastics, trampolining, handball and basketball events.