Alex Ovechkin has not played for Russia on an international stage since the 2019 World Championship.
With the end of his playing days fast approaching, Ovechkin would still like the chance to put on his country’s jersey again but also knows a chance to do so in the coming years is unlikely. He recently discussed that unfortunate reality during a Russian-language interview with blogger Amiran Sardarov.
When asked by Sardarov if he still wished to go for gold on the Olympic stage, Ovechkin replied per a sports.ru transcription and translation by Google Translate, “In theory, yes, but you see what is happening with our team now. They are not allowing us to participate in the World Championships or the Olympics, so I don’t know how this will all happen.”
The International Ice Hockey Federation, the organization that runs both major, international hockey tournaments, has barred Russian and Belorussian teams from their events since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IIHF met last February and extended that ban through the 2024-25 season.
The next scheduled meeting to determine Russia and Belarus’s eligibility for the 2025-26 season is set for May of next year. The NHL will participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy so the IIHF’s 2025 decision will play a large role in determining whether or not Ovechkin plays for an Olympic medal again during the final year on his NHL contract with the Washington Capitals.
The final decision will involve the International Olympic Committee. Judging by the standard set for the 2024 Summer Games in France, Russia or Belarus will likely not be allowed to participate unless there is a drastic change in current affairs. Solo athletes with passports from the two countries are being allowed to compete this summer but only as “Individual Neutral Athletes” without their nation’s flag or anthem if they win a medal.
Ovechkin has played in three previous Olympics (2006, 2010, 2014) and went without a medal in all three tries. Gold medals are very important to the Ovechkin family as The Great Eight’s mother, Tatyana Ovechkina, won two Olympic gold medals (1976, 1980) with the Soviet Union’s women’s basketball team.
“The Olympics are in my blood,” Ovechkin wrote in 2017. “There is nothing like Olympic Games. It is still my dream to win an Olympic Gold medal for my country.”
The men’s Russian national hockey team has never won a gold medal under their current banner. In South Korea in 2018, they won gold as the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” due to the country’s doping scandal. Before that, they won seven gold medals as the Soviet Union.
“There were so many moments, so many opportunities, and, unfortunately, there is no medal,” Ovechkin said. “I am very happy for the guys when they won the Olympic gold, well done. But, unfortunately, I was not there.”
Outside of the purely IIHF-sanctioned events, Russia and Belarus will also not be included in the NHL and NHLPA’s midseason “4 Nations Face-Off” next year. The event is supposed to act as a precursor for the eventual return of the World Cup of Hockey.
“There’s only so much we can do under these circumstances,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in June. “Whether it’s the Four Nations or the Olympics, people can have opinions. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort with the Players Association on this.”
Ovechkin did play in the last World Cup in 2016 for Russia, finishing in fourth place. The next World Cup is tentatively set for 2028 when Ovechkin will be 42 years old.
