Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Field Set

After the final qualifying competitions in Bad Tölz, Germany, and Shanghai, China, the field for the women's Olympic ice hockey competition at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver is set. Teams from Slovakia and China will join the American, Canadian, Finnish, Russian, Swedish and Swiss squads that had already qualified.

Ranked 17th in the IIHF Women's World Ranking, Slovakia not only became the lowest ranked women's team ever to qualify for an Olympic ice hockey tournament, but also it was the lowest ranked of all eight women's teams that took part in the Nov. 6-9 qualification tournaments,. Yet it swept in Bad Tölz, defeating host Germany (7th) 1-0, Kazakhstan (10th) 2-0 and France (11th) 3-1.

The eighth-ranked Chinese defeated ninth-ranked Japan in Shanghai to ensure their spot.

From Feb. 13-25, the Olympic tournament will take place at Canada Hockey Place and the UBC Thunderbird Arena. Competition Group A includes Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and Slovakia, and Group B is made up of the United States, Finland, Russia and China.

The final schedule will be released in December or January.

Three more spots are up for grabs in the men's Olympic tournament, which already includes teams from the United States, Canada, Belarus, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and Czech Republic.