Lausanne, Switzerland, April 27, 2020: The International Ice Hockey Federation has published the 2020 IIHF Men’s and Women’s World Rankings.
The annual ranking is based on the results in the World Championships and Olympic Winter Games, including Olympic Qualification, of the last four years.
The 2020 rankings are used for the seeding of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
Men
Group A: Canada (1), USA (6), Germany (7), China (12).
Group B: Russia (2), Czech Republic (5), Switzerland (8), Qualifier 3 (11).
Group C: Finland (3), Sweden (4), Qualifier 1 (9), Qualifier 2 (10).
The Olympic Qualification for the men’s teams has already started in November 2019 and will end with the Final Olympic Qualification scheduled for 27-30 August 2020 in the following groups:
Group D: Slovakia, Belarus, Austria, Poland. In Bratislava, Slovakia.
Group E: Latvia, France, Italy, Hungary. In Riga, Latvia.
Group F: Norway, Denmark, Korea, Slovenia. In Norway (city TBA).
Women
In the women’s world rankings, the top six countries remained in the same order and will be the ones directly qualified for the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament in Beijing 2022, which will be played in two tiered groups:
Group A: USA (1), Canada (2), Finland (3), Russia (4), Switzerland (5).
Group B: Japan (6), Qualifier 1 (7), Qualifier 2 (8), Qualifier 3 (9), China (10).
The ranking will also determine the seeding for the women’s Olympic Qualification. The structure will depend on the number of national teams entered for Olympic women’s ice hockey.
The three final Olympic Qualification tournaments for women will be hosted by Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden from February 11-14, 2021.
*The men’s world rankings include: 16, Kazakhstan; 18, Korea; 24, Japan; 32, China; 41, DPR Korea; 44, Chinese Taipei; 45, Turkmenistan; 47, United Arab Emirates; 48, Hong Kong, China; 50, Thailand; 51, Kuwait; 52, Kyrgyzstan; 53, Malaysia; 54, Philippines (new).
*The women’s world rankings include: 6, Japan; 16, Korea; 19, China; 21, Kazakhstan; 28, DPR Korea; 30, Chinese Taipei; 33, Hong Kong, China.