Latvian hockey players will compete for a place in the quarter-finals at the Olympic Games 0 6

The first round playoff match between the national teams of Latvia and Sweden at the "Milano Santagiulia" arena will start at 22:10 Latvian time. The winner will meet the USA in the quarter-finals.

Earlier, at 15:30, in Antholz, the Latvian team will start in the biathlon relay 4x7.5 kilometers. The team consists of Andrey Rastorguyev, Renars Birkentāls, Rihards Lozbergs, and Edgars Mise.

Meanwhile, at 20:00 and 22:05 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Latvian bobsleigh team will conduct the last two runs in the two-man competition with pilot Jānis Kalenda and brakeman Matis Miknis.

The LTV7 channel will broadcast the Olympic competitions live.

Latvian hockey players began the Olympic tournament with a loss of 1:5 to the USA, then defeated Germany 4:3, but in the decisive match for second place in the group and a more favorable opponent in the first round of the playoffs, they lost to Denmark — 2:4. As a result, Latvia finished last, in fourth place in the group and tenth overall, facing Sweden, which took seventh place.

The Swedes started the tournament with a tough victory of 5:2 over Italy, then lost to Finland — 1:4, and in the final match defeated Slovakia 5:3. In the subgroup, the Swedish team finished in third place.

In the last two World Championships, Latvian hockey players lost to Sweden with scores of 2:7 and 0:6, but in the quarter-finals of 2023 in Riga, they won — 3:1. At the Olympic Games, Latvians have faced the Swedes three times and lost in all cases, including in 2022, when the group stage match ended with the smallest margin — 2:3.

On Tuesday, at 13:10, Germany will play against France for the right to meet Slovakia, while Switzerland will play against Italy, with the winner becoming Finland's opponent. At 17:40, there will be a match between the Czech Republic and Denmark, with the winner meeting Canada in the quarter-finals.

For Latvian biathletes, these will be the last competitions in the men's category, as none of the four athletes qualified for the mass start race. The Latvian team will participate in the relay for the first time since 2010, when in Vancouver, Edgars Piksons, Ilmārs Bricis, Rastorguyev, and Kristaps Libietis finished in 18th place.

Before this, Latvia was represented in all Olympic Games, and in 1998 in Nagano, it finished in sixth place.

In the two-man bobsleigh competition, the crew of Kalenda and Miknis is currently in sixth place after the first two runs, which is a high result considering their performances this season.

In the first run, Kalenda's crew showed the ninth fastest time, and in the second, they became fourth, moving up three positions. Overall, the Latvian crew is 1.53 seconds behind the leaders — Germans Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer — and is 0.29 seconds away from the top three.

At these Olympic Games, Latvia has two medals: silver in luge won by Elīna Ieva Bota and bronze in short track by Roberts Krūzbergs.

The Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina will last until February 22.