2026 Olympics Preview: Italy

Fun fact about the Olympics: when you’re the home country, you qualify for every event, including the ones you normally wouldn’t. This is why the US is holding tryouts for its women’s handball team in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles… and why Italy is competing in women’s hockey at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games. 

Though not a traditional hockey country, Italy has had a national women’s hockey team since 1999, mostly competing in lower tiers of IIHF competition, as well as a national league, the Italian Hockey League Women, that has operated since 1990. The 2026 Olympics will be Team Italy’s second Olympic women’s hockey tournament appearance, since they also qualified as the hosts of the 2006 Torino Games. 

Le Azzurre finished eighth of eight teams in 2006 and generally had a pretty brutal tournament, with 16-0 and 11-0 blowouts against Canada and Sweden in the preliminary rounds, then another 11-0 loss to Switzerland in the seventh-place game. In the twenty years since, Italy has made some progress in international hockey. In 2025, they placed first at the IIHF Division IB Women’s World Championships, earning promotion to Division IA for 2026.

Italy’s team features a mix of homegrown talent and dual passport holders with experience all around the world. One of the most notable and most familiar to a North American audience is Laura Fortino. A two-time Olympian and former mainstay on the blueline for Team Canada, Fortino has been playing in Italy since 2023 with her eyes set on representing her heritage at the 2026 Olympics. Her experience and veteran leadership will be important to Team Italy’s game.

Another player to keep an eye on is Matilde Fantin. At the 2025 Division IB tournament, Fantin led all players in goals and points and earned herself the award for Best Forward while serving as an assistant captain for le Azzurre. The 19-year-old has spent the 2025-26 season with Penn State, where she has 18 points in 21 games, and her eight goals are the most among her team’s freshmen. Fantin has proven she can make a difference in international play and that she has the skill to hang with tough competition in the NCAA, which will make her a crucial contributor to Italy at the Olympics. 

When it comes to team performance, success for Italy simply means not getting embarrassed on their own ice. If they can avoid 2006-style blowout losses, that’s a good mark for a team completely outmatched by its opponents. If they can even pull off a win, it’ll be a big deal for the host country. The best chance for that win might come in Italy's tournament opener against France, the only other team not in the IIHF Championship division at the 2026 Olympics. That game is also taking place at the possibly unfinished Santagiulia Ice Arena, where the questionable ice quality and smaller rink dimensions might be able to add just the chaos Italy needs to steal a victory.

Unfortunately for the home team, I think it’s likely that they end up in last place once again. Their roster has some talented players, and their two-month training stint in Canada will certainly help them be more prepared, but Team Italy is totally out of its depth. That said, the exposure and level of play they’ll get at the Olympics will be great for developing the team further and encouraging more girls in Italy to pick up a hockey stick.

Team Italy's first game is against France on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 2:40 PM local time (CET)/8:40 AM EST.