Women's Tournament Programme & Schedules

The following summarises the issues that have been addressed in the development of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women’s Hockey Tournament:

1. The 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Tournament is to begin on Saturday February 13, and finish on Thursday February 25, 2010.
2. The maximum number of women's tournament games are to be played at UBC Arena to minimize travel by teams and maintain consistency.
3. The Semi-Finals, the Bronze Medal and Gold Medal games will be played in GM Place to maximize spectator attendance.
4. A minimum of four hours and thirty minutes are to be scheduled between game start times each day.
5. The IIHF three-point system will be used for this tournament as presented in the IIHF Sport Regulations.
6. Unless otherwise stated within this document the IIHF Statutes, Bylaws and Regulations in force at the time will be utilised for the operation of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Tournament and the corresponding qualification tournaments listed within this document.

Olympic Pre-Qualification Tournaments (September 4-7, 2008):

1. Olympic Pre-Qualification tournaments for nations ranked 13 through 18 plus qualifiers from any preliminary qualification required or ranked nations above 18.
2. Teams are permitted to enter a maximum of 18 players, 2 goalkeepers and 6 staff members. For any preliminary qualification that may be required, teams will be permitted to enter the same maximum team numbers.

Qualification Principles

1. National Associations wishing to enter the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Tournament competition must submit their completed Team Entry Form to the IIHF Office, signed by both their National Olympic Committee and their National Association, by December 31, 2007.
2. Eight (8) teams will be qualified to participate in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Tournament and will be qualified by November 2008.
3. The IIHF World Ranking System will determine seeding for the Olympic competition and all qualifications of this competition.
4. The qualification system for participation in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Competition will be performed in four separate stages: Direct Entry, Final Olympic Qualification, Olympic Pre-Qualification and Preliminary Qualification.
5. The top six women's teams from the 2008 IIHF World Ranking, (determined immediately following completion of the 2008 IIHF World Women Championship), will be automatically qualified for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games competition and seeded directly into the Preliminary Round following the seeding procedures outlined in the IIHF Sport Regulations and using their 2008 IIHF World Ranking number.
6. The national associations entering their women's team into the qualification for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be allocated to one of the two Final Olympic Qualification tournaments, or to one of the two Olympic Pre-Qualification Tournaments or, if necessary, into Preliminary Qualifications using their ranking numbers according to the 2008 IIHF World Ranking.
7. The Olympic Pre-Qualification and the Final Olympic Qualification Tournaments will be formatted and seeded as specified below with team registration as presented in the formats that follow.
8. The top ranked teams by Group have the hosting rights for each qualification tournament.  Confirmations must be made by the 2008 Annual Congress.
9. The venue must be accepted by the IIHF in all hosting arrangements.  
10. Should the highest ranked team reject the hosting rights or if the venue does not meet IIHF standards then the event will be offered to the next highest ranked team following these conditions until an organiser is allocated.

Final Olympic Qualifications Tournaments (November 6-9, 2008):

1. Olympic Qualification tournaments for nations ranked 7 through 12 plus two qualifiers from the Olympic Pre-Qualification Tournaments held in September 2008.
2. Teams are permitted to enter a maximum of 18 players, 2 goalkeepers and 6 staff members.

2010 OWG Women's Tournament Playing Format:

1. The top six ranked national associations according to the 2008 IIHF World Ranking, determined at the conclusion of the 2008 IIHF World Women Championship, will be seeded in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Tournament according to their 2008 IIHF World Ranking number.
2. The two winning teams of the Final Olympic Qualification Tournaments will be seeded into the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Tournament following their 2008 IIHF World Ranking number.
3. The 8 teams will be seeded into two groups of four teams each in a normal seeding pattern following the IIHF Sport Regulations:

4. The teams will compete in the 20 game schedule including 12 Preliminary Round Games, 4 Final Classification Games, 2 Semi-Final Games, one Bronze Medal Game and one Gold Medal Game:

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

5. At the conclusion of the 12 game Preliminary Round all 8 teams advance to the Playoff Round. The top two teams in each group will advance to the Medal Round while the third and fourth placed teams from each group will play for positions 5 through 8 in the Final Classification Games.
6. The Final Classification Games will be played with the following match-ups:
   • 3A - 4B
   • 3B - 4A
7. The two winning teams of the first round of the Final Classification Games will play for the 5th and 6th positions while the two losing teams of the first round of the Final Classification Games will play for the 7th and 8th positions.
8. The two Semi Final Games will be played with the following match-ups:
   • 1A - 2B
   • 1B - 2A
9. The two winning teams of the Semi-Finals will play in the Finals for the Gold Medal while the two losing teams of the Semi-Finals will play for the Bronze Medal.
10. Teams are permitted to register and enter a maximum of 18 players and 2 goalkeepers into the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Women's Tournament.
11. Teams must register a minimum of 15 players and 2 goalkeepers at the first Directorate meeting, held the evening before the tournament starts.
12. An emergency goalkeeper can be registered with the IIHF at any time throughout the tournament following the IIHF Bylaws.
13. There will be no addition of new players to the rosters once the maximum number of players is entered by the respective team.

Preliminary Round:

Playoff Round:

Finals: