Russia announces roster of its ice hockey team for 2022 Olympics in Beijing

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Russia has announced the list of players on the national ice hockey team bound for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, which kick off early next month in China’s Beijing. All players on the announced roster are from the clubs of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The US-based National Hockey League (NHL) reported on December 22 that its players would not be participating in the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games. This decision was made "because the League's regular-season schedule has been disrupted as a result of increasing COVID-19 cases and a rising number of postponed games," according to the NHL press office. On the final roster of the Russian national ice hockey team for the 2022 Olympics are goalkeepers, Alexander Samonov (SKA hockey club); Timur Bilyalov (Ak Bars HC); Ivan Fedotov (CSKA HC). For its defenders, the team has picked Alexander Nikishin (Spartak HC); Vyacheslav Voinov (Dinamo Moscow HC); Alexander Yelesin (Lokomotiv HC); Artyom Minulin, Yegor Yakovlev (Metallurg HC); Nikita Nesterov (CSKA HC), Sergey Telegin (Traktor HC); Damir Sharipzyanov (Avangard HC). As for forwards, they will be Artyom Anisimov (Lokomotiv HC); Sergey Andronov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Pavel Karnaukhov, Sergey Plotnikov, Anton Slepyshev (all from CSKA HC); Arseny Gritsyuk, Kirill Semyunov (Avangard HC); Nikita Gusev, Kirill Marchenko (SKA HC); Vadim Shipachyov (Dinamo Moscow HC); Dmitry Voronkov (Ak Bars HC); Artur Kayumov (Lokomotiv HC); Andrei Chibisov (Metallurg HC). Substitutes on the national team’s roster are: goalkeeper Dmitry Shugayev (Severstal HC); defender Semyon Chistyakov (Avangard HC); forwards Alexander Kadeikin (Salavat Yulayev HC), Andrey Kuzmenko (SKA HC), Vladimir Tkachyov (Traktor HC) and Stanislav Galiyev (Dinamo Moscow HC). The coaching staff is led by Head Coach Alexei Zhamnov. It also includes Alexei Kudashov, Sergey Fyodorov, Sergey Gonchar (Assistant Coaches); Sergey Naymov (Goalkeepers Coach); Khassan Said, Dmitry Yashankin (Physical Training Coaches). The ice hockey competition at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing will run between February 9 and 20. The team of Russian ice hockey players was seeded in Group B along with the squads from Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Denmark. Team ROC (the Russian Olympic Committee) will play its Group B matches against Switzerland on February 9, Denmark - on February 11 and the Czech Republic - on February 12. At the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang, the Russian national ice hockey team played under the status of the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) and eventually won the Olympic gold defeating Germany 4-3 in sudden death overtime of the final match. 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled to be held from February 4-20, while the Paralympic Winter Games will be held on March 4-13. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022). Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics and Paralympics in a tight race, beating Kazakhstan’s Almaty in 2015, by chalking up 44 votes against its rival’s 40. Read more