The RIHF's official statement in connection with the IOC's list of players invited to the Olympic Games

On January 22, International Olympic Committee (IOC) representatives gave a list of athletes who can be invited to play at the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea. During the same day, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation received information from the ROC stating which ice hockey players can play at the competition. The following players were included in the list:

Sergei Andronov, Alexander Barabanov, Anton Burdasov, Vyacheslav Voynov, Vladislav Gavrikov, Nikita Gusev, Mikhail Grigorenko, Pavel Datsyuk, Vasily Demchenko, Artyom Zub, Andrei Zubarev, Sergei Kalinin, Kirill Kaprizov, Bogdan Kiselevich, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vasily Koshechkin, Ilya Kablukov, Evgeny Ketov, Pavel Kraskovsky, Yegor Korshkov, Roman Lyubimov, Ilya Lyubushkin, Alexei Marchenko, Sergei Mozyakin, Nikita Nesterov, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Yegor Rykov, Ilya Samsonov, Andrei Svetlakov, Ilya Sorokin, Viktor Tikhonov, Ivan Telegin, Vladimir Tkachyov, Nikita Tryamkin, Maxim Shalunov, Alexander Sharychenkov, Sergei Shirokov, Vadim Shipachyov, Sergei Shumakov, Igor Shestyorkin, Dinar Khafizullin, Yegor Yakovlev.

These following candidates did not receive an invitation from the IOC to compete at the Olympic Games: Anton Belov, Alexei Bereglazov, Mikhail Naumenkov, Valery Nichushkin and Sergei Plotnikov.

Taking into account the heightened attention being paid to the question of our team participating at the tournament, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation feels it's necessary to state that the mentioned five players have not been banned from taking part in competitions. However, according to the IOC's program for Russian athletes competing at the 2018 Olympic Games, they have not received an invitation to participate in the tournament.

At the same time, the IOC stressed that these players are not guilty of breaching anti-doping rules. When inviting players to take part at the Olympic Games, the IOC considered a wide range of factors.

The RIHF are requesting information from the IOC for the reasons why these players were not invited.

On January 25, the senior Russian national team roster for the Olympic Games will be released. 25 players will be in the team.

All of the Russian national team's coaches, medical, administration and technical staff have been invited to the Olympic Games.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation