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Austria starts Olympic qualifier against Slovakia

Austria's national men's ice hockey team will face Slovakia in the qualifying tournament for the 2026 Olympic Games!

Team manager Roger Bader's squad will face the tournament hosts in Bratislava on August 29 (6 p.m.). The duel with Kazakhstan follows just under 17 hours later, and Hungary awaits at the end on September 1 (2 p.m.). Only the group winner will secure an Olympic ticket.

"We have the most challenging schedule of all four teams!"
The ÖEHV team is hoping to make its first Olympic appearance since Sochi 2014, but goes into the tournament as outsiders. "We have the most challenging schedule of all four teams with this short recovery time between games 1 and 2. We have to accept that," said Bader.

"Rossi, Kasper and Reinbacher want to be there!"
In preparation for the tournament in the Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava, Austria will play two test matches against Slovenia - on August 22 in Ljubljana or Bled and two days later in Graz.

Bader is hoping for reinforcements from overseas: "Marco Rossi, Marco Kasper and David Reinbacher want to be involved in the Olympic qualifiers. We are now in contact with their respective NHL organizations to get their approval."