Ice hockey at the 2022 Winter Olympics
The ice hockey competitions of the 2022 Winter Olympics will be played at two venues located in the Beijing cluster. The Beijing National Indoor Stadium, which seats 18,000, is one of what are being called Olympic Green venues. The Wukesong Arena, seating 10,000, will also be used with both arenas was constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The men's tournament will have twelve teams competing, the women's tournament will have ten teams for the first time.
On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency banned Russia from all international sport for a period of four years, after the Russian government was found to have tampered with lab data that it provided to WADA in January 2019 as a condition of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency being reinstated. As a result of the ban, WADA will allow individually cleared Russian athletes to take part in the 2022 Winter Olympics under a neutral banner, as instigated at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The title of the neutral banner has yet to be determined; WADA Compliance Review Committee head Jonathan Taylor stated that the IOC would not be able to use "Olympic Athletes from Russia" as it did in 2018, emphasizing that neutral athletes cannot be portrayed as representing a specific country. Russia later filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the WADA decision.
Men's tournament
The tournament will feature 12 countries, 8 qualifying through the IIHF World Ranking, the host China, and 3 through qualifying tournaments yet to be played. The format will remain the same as the previous three Olympics; three groups of four compete in three games to determine seeding, each play every other team in their group, followed by four rounds of elimination games. Each group winner receives a bye into the second round, along with the highest ranked of the remaining teams. The remaining eight teams play an eliminating qualification game to advance to the quarter-final round. Each quarter-final winner advanced to the semi-finals with the winners playing for the gold medal and the losers playing for the bronze. With the cancellation of the 2020 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships the groups were established on 24 April 2020, using the IIHF world rankings where seeding counted for the ranking points in unplayed tournaments.On 10 July 2020, the National Hockey League Players' Association and National Hockey League agreed to a renewed collective bargaining agreement, which includes a provision opening the possibility for the NHL to explore participation at the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics.
Qualification
Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2019 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships. The top eight will join the hosts and three qualifiers.Participating nations
The groups were established on 24 April 2020 in absence of a World Championship. Qualifiers one, two, and three, will be the winners of the Final Qualification tournaments that begin 26 August 2021. Their designation will be determined by their qualification seeding.| Group A | Group B | Group C |
Women's tournament
For the first time ten nations will compete in the women's tournament, six qualifying through the IIHF World Ranking, the host China, and three through qualifying tournaments yet to be played. The qualification groups and schedule will be established at the 2020 IIHF Annual Congress.Qualification
Qualification for the women's tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics were supposed to be determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2020 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships, but they were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The top six ranked nations were established by using there seeding for ranking points in unplayed tournaments in 2020.Participating nations
Qualifiers one, two, and three, will be the winners of the Final Qualification tournaments. Their designation will be determined by their qualification seeding.| Group A | Group B |