Official bid goes to IOC early next year

It’s an exciting time as ice hockey prepares to bid for a new discipline at the Olympics. Over the past seven years, the IIHF has worked to pioneer the 3x3 hockey format. Now we’re almost ready to submit a detailed proposal to introduce 3x3 to the Winter Olympics in Nice in 2030.

The concept was first put forward back in the 2017/18 season and there was a successful exhibition event at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. That went so well that the IOC invited the IIHF to develop a competition format for the 2024 Youth Games in Korea. By this time, 3x3 was also part of the ICE26 Strategic Plan to help expand and develop the game. Even back in 2021, when work started on drawing up that plan, there was a vision to bring 3x3 hockey to the Olympics in 2030.

Following a successful competition in Korea in 2024, several other events helped to refine the format. The 3x3 competition game manual is in the final approval phase and the remaining weeks before the IOC deadline will be spent producing the strongest possible bid.

The 3x3 proposal for the IOC dispenses with the cross-ice format seen at the Youth Olympic Games. Instead, the action takes place on a dedicated ice pad and the new discipline is called 3x3 on small ice. This reinforce the idea that 3x3 is a new discipline within an existing sport: the boards, the benches and suchlike are set up in the same way as a traditional Olympic rink; the only difference is the size of the ice pad. At the IIHF’s Women’s 3x3 series in Brazil in November, teams will compete on a 26x18m surface, compared with the traditional 60x30m Olympic ice.

The existing 5x5 hockey tournaments are already among the highlights of every Olympic Winter Games, so what’s the attraction of adding 3x3 to the mix? Crucially, it offers more opportunities for hockey players – particularly from smaller MNAs – to be involved with the Olympics. The 3x3 game can thrive among a smaller player pool and does not require full-size ice. At all levels, it’s easier and more affordable to put teams on the ice, levelling the playing field and reducing the gap between established hockey powers and fast-developing newcomers to the sport. And that reinforces one of the key planks of ICE26 to make ice hockey more accessible and attractive than ever.

New format, new skills, new audience

Although this is a new format, it is already finding firm advocates among people who grew up playing 5x5. Danny Meyers was a Great Britain international, a veteran of 10 lower division World Championships and two Olympic qualification campaigns in a career that spanned almost two decades at the top end of the British leagues. Now, he’s so committed to 3x3 hockey that he invested his own money to build a dedicated rink for the new format in Bracknell, about 40 miles from London.

Meyers, 41, believes that it’s a great way of developing all-round hockey skills that can transfer to 5x5 play.
“You don’t have the luxury of a specialist defender or winger or whatever, you have to play all positions,” he said.

“And it’s fast. You make quick decisions, and those decisions have immediate consequences. In 5x5 if you lose the puck in the opposition’s corner, they still have to come 200 feet up the ice. In 3x3, it’s an immediate breakaway. On the smaller pad, the edgework has to be spot on, the decision making has to be better.”

It’s also a new challenge for coaches. “It’s exhilarating, seeing the new stresses it places on the players,” Meyers added. “I feel like I’m a better coach on the smaller ice – I can get to players quicker, the communication is better.”

The game is also good for fans. 3x3 is high-scoring, the action is end-to-end and the natural rhythm of the game is slightly faster than the familiar 5x5 format. Other sports – notably basketball, which successfully debuted a 3x3 game at the Tokyo Olympics, and cricket, where the T20 format has inspired glamourous and lucrative global tournaments – have built entirely new audiences via similar new disciplines. Hockey has a great opportunity to do the same with 3x3.

What happens next?

The big deadline is January 2025, when the IIHF makes an official submission of interest in adding a new ice hockey discipline to the OWG 2030 Discipline Evaluation Program. The first questionnaire must be submitted by March 30 and the IOC will make a final decision in Q4 2025. If the bid is successful, it would pave the way for 3x3 hockey to feature at the 2030 Winter Olympic Games in France. That, in turn, could allow up to 240 more hockey players  to take part in the Olympics – further broadening the reach and appeal of the game.

Meanwhile, more 3x3 events are in the pipeline. After November’s IIHF Women’s 3x3 series in Brazil, 2025 will bring an IIHF Men’s 3x3 series in April or May. Applications are already underway to choose a host. In addition, there will be two stages of regional IIHF Nations League Qualification. This will determine the competitors for the inaugural IIHF EIGHT NATIONS  3x3 World Championship in 2026. That will be the start of an annual World Championship for men and women, much like the existing 5x5 structure.