The French men’s ice hockey team, clearly beaten 5-2 by Latvia in the last match of the Olympic qualifying tournament (OQT) in Riga on Sunday, failed to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
This is the sixth time in a row, since their last participation in the Olympic Games in 2002 in Salt Lake City, that the French hockey players have failed in qualifying.
Les Bleus had largely dominated Ukraine (7-2) on Thursday and then Slovenia (5-1) on Friday. The Latvians had also won their first two matches. Their face-to-face was therefore decisive, with only the first of this TQO, that is to say the winner of this match with the feel of a final, pocketing the ticket for the 2026 Olympics.
The men of new coach Yorick Treille opened the scoring after 21 seconds of play through Charles Bertrand. But the local team, carried by its public, quickly reacted in the first third by equalizing in the sixth minute, then taking the advantage two minutes later.
In the second quarter, Latvia scored three more goals to take a 5-1 lead, and it was not a goal from Stéphane Da Costa in the final third with three minutes to go that was going to change the course of things.
This is the third time in ten years that the Latvians have blocked the French from reaching the Olympic Games, after 2013 in qualifying for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, and 2021 in qualifying for the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Related News :