The German ice hockey team faces the biggest hurdle

When it comes to the topic of Russia, Christian Künast shows a clear edge in his crisp Bavarian style. “As long as Russia is waging war in Ukraine, Russia is not welcome in the ice hockey family,” says the sports director of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB). His association is on track with the world association IIHF. What the International Olympic Committee will do is of course another matter.

If the Russians are allowed to compete in the ice hockey tournament in Milan in 2026, then qualifying would be tighter and only the group winners and not a group runner-up from the three groups would advance. In the qualification, in which the German team will play in Bremerhaven in a few days for participation in the Winter Olympics and for the prospect of a better future: In a few days they will face Austria (February 6th), Slovakia (8th… February) and Hungary (February 9).

The men, who have recently matured into an international brand, are automatically there thanks to their high world ranking, while the women would be taking part in the Olympics for the first time since 2014. In Sochi the men were still in the sporting trough and had to pass. Since the silver medal in 2018, things have changed for the men. “For men we have international shoe sizes 41/42, for women only 34/35,” says Künast.

Women are still not at the top of the world. And the Bremerhaven tournament will not be a sure-fire success in this respect either. The opposing teams are well staffed, even with players from the new professional league in North America (PWHL), in which German goalkeeper Sandra Abstreiter also plays, or from the HK Budapest team, which is already leading the German league (DFEL) as a visiting team has. “A certain amount of luck with the disc is necessary in a tournament like this,” says Künast.

At the DEB, however, they agree on the consequences of successful Olympic qualification. Ronja Jenike, assistant coach of the German women’s national team as well as a competitive sports representative at the DEB and former national player, says whether there would be more funding places in the Bundeswehr’s sports group has not yet been decided. “But it would definitely help us.”

Jenike also sees progress in terms of public perception, media interest is greater and advance sales for Bremerhaven are also good. At DEB they are still assuming that the stadium there will be playable in just under two weeks after the ammonia pipe is defective.

The four teams competing in Bremerhaven are of course a bit away from the world’s best and they mainly play in North America. It is still important to bring the structures of women’s ice hockey to a better level in this country. “In everyday life, sport has a higher value in North America,” says Ronja Jenike. “But when it comes to playing systems or the quality of the coaches, then we’re not that far off.”

And the way to Milan isn’t that far anymore, on Saturday next week coach Jeff MacLeod’s national team will play a test match against Hungary in Kassel and then they’ll soon be heading to the coast. If there is still no playable ice in Bremerhaven, then “of course we have another solution,” says Christian Künast.