For the first time in twelve years, German ice hockey women are represented at the Winter Olympics. And they have big ambitions. The national coach even believes in a historic placement.
On Thursday afternoon (February 5, 2026, 12:10 p.m. in the live stream), the German women’s national ice hockey team will be on the Olympic ice for the first time since Sochi 2014. The opening opponent in the Winter Games tournament is the team from Sweden. The Scandinavians, who won bronze in Salt Lake City in 2002 and silver in Turin four years later, will probably be the toughest benchmark for national coach Jeff MacLeod’s team in the group of five.
And it builds up a little bit of pressure shortly before the start of the tournament. “For everyone who takes part, the dream is to win a medal. If we perform well as a team, it is possible”says the Canadian to the RND. An Olympic medal would be a first for the German women, who are considered blatant outsiders; their best placement so far was fifth place in 2006 – in Italy.
Mathilda Heine as Promise of the future
When it comes to his big dream, the 54-year-old is largely relying on young talent, good training overseas and a block from the German champions. With Mathilda Heine, MacLeod has the youngest participant in the German team at these Winter Games in its ranks. Six of the 23 players in the squad are currently playing in the USA or Canada. However, the Memmingen Indians make up the biggest block. Eight active players play together for the reigning title holders of the German Women’s Ice Hockey League.
Despite his inexperience, the national coach has many words of praise for the young talent Heine: “She has a high hockey IQ and a good skillset. Over the past twelve months she has invested a lot of time in becoming physically stronger, fitter and more athletic.” Another big plus is their flexibility.
At 16 years old, Mathilda Heine is the youngest German Olympic participant in Italy.
Premiere for all players
MacLeod has been responsible for the women’s national team at the German Hockey Association for around two and a half years and has registered a new attitude among the players during this time: “We are happy that we are becoming more consistent and have developed a certain winning mentality, for example at the Germany Cup or in the Olympic qualification.” He ensured that the German women played with more drive forward.
All of the players on the 23-member squad will be on the ice at the Olympic Games for the first time, although one member of the team already has some Olympic experience. Daria Gleißner was also part of the German women’s national team in Russia in 2014. She didn’t play because of an injury, but she already knows the atmosphere in the Olympic Village. Now the 32-year-old is from Memmingen “just happy”. For her you go “Sporting lifelong dream come true”.
And similar to her head coach, she sees her team not just going to Milan for sightseeing, given the increase in quality in recent years. “At some point you have to look further and ask: What else do we want to achieve?”said Gleißner: It is “Between three and seven, everything is possible. If we play our best hockey, I’m sure we can make it far at the Olympic Games.”
Mode: Eight out of ten in the knockout round
Of the ten nations participating in the Olympic tournament, eight make it to the quarterfinals. This includes all five teams from Group A, which consists of the best nations. This means that the German women have to leave behind at least two other teams in Group B in order to make it to the knockout round. In addition to Sweden, Germany will also face Japan (Saturday, February 7th, from 12:10 p.m. in the live stream), France (Monday, February 9th, from 4:40 p.m. in the live stream) and finally the hosts from Italy (Tuesday, February 10th, from 4:40 p.m. in the live stream).
The big favorites are once again the USA and Canada. Since the women celebrated their Olympic debut in Nagano in 1998, the gold medals have always gone to one of the two nations. Except for 2006, the final was always Canada versus the USA. The women with the maple leaf on their jerseys won five times, and the women with the stars and stripes became Olympic champions twice. Anything other than this final would also be a surprise in 2026. But perhaps there is room for another surprise behind it. One in black, red and gold.
Source: with material from Sid
