Trio of European teams to watch at the Olympic women's hockey tournament

Kristýna Kaltounková has seen the headlines about how everyone expects another epic Canada-U.S. match-up in the Olympic gold medal final.

She’s tired of reading them.

“If I could, I would do anything to be up there and be able to win that gold or silver medal,” the Czech forward said. “I'm going to do whatever it takes.”

Kaltounková, who was taken first overall in last year’s PWHL draft by the New York Sirens, leads the league in both goals (11) and penalty minutes (31) after her first 16 professional games.

The 23-year-old, who boasts size and a great shot, could be an X factor for a rising Czech team that hopes to shake up the Olympic podium. 

Only one Olympic final, in 2006, featured a non-North American team. Canada defeated Sweden for gold that year.

But now, the best international players compete in the PWHL, where they play and train alongside top talent every day. Czechia has eight PWHL players on its roster, including Kaltounková.

While the U.S. and Canada are still the top-ranked teams in the world and heavy favourites to make another Olympic final, there’s no doubt the rest of the world has gotten better.

Here are three European teams to watch heading into the women’s Olympic hockey tournament, which begins in Milan, Italy on Feb. 5.  You can watch all the Olympic hockey action on CBC and CBC Gem.

It’s only been four years since Czechia made its Olympic women’s hockey debut, but a lot has happened since then.

The country won its first two world championship medals with back-to-back bronze in 2022 and 2023.

Then, the Czechs hosted the world championship for the first time in 2025. The home team nearly upset the Americans in the semifinals, before going on to lose to Finland in the bronze-medal match.

At home, the program’s funding “exploded” after the Olympic appearance four years ago, according to Boston Fleet defender Daniela Pejšová, who will be competing at Milano Cortina 2026 with the Czech team.

“During the summer when I'm home at these summer camps for girls, they all tell me that they started because they saw us on the TV winning the [world championship bronze medal in 2022] or just competing at the Olympics,” she said. “The girls' hockey just exploded in Czech. The federation started funding our program and obviously the PWHL happened. We have a lot of players in this league, so that helps, too.”