was held without participation of NHL players, for the first time since the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. The favorites to win the gold medal were the Russians due to their domestic league, the KHL, taking an Olympic break and allowing such stars as Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk to play on the team. As a consequence of a doping scandal, the IOC banned the Russian federation, but allowed Russian athletes to compete under the Olympic flag after passing anti-doping tests. The final was played between the Germans, who unexpectedly eliminated the Canadians in the semi-final, and the Olympic Athletes from Russia. In the final, the Russians prevailed, defeating Germany 4–3, and won the gold medal after Kirill Kaprizov scored the winning goal in overtime. The Russian players sang the banned anthem during the medal ceremony, but the IOC decided not to pursue any action. Canada won the bronze medal over the Czech Republic 6–4. Although NHL players were originally planned to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the league and the NHL Players' Association announced on December 21, 2021 that they would be pulling out of the tournament, citing the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Finland won their first ever ice hockey gold medal after going undefeated and beating the Russian Olympic Committee in the final. Slovakia claimed their first ever bronze medal after defeating Sweden 4–0. For the first time in history, the Czech Republic did not qualify for the quarter-finals and finished in ninth place, their lowest placement in history. Women's tournament Addition to the programme At the 99th IOC Session in July 1992, the IOC voted to approve women's hockey as an Olympic event beginning with the 1998 Winter Olympics as part of their effort to increase the number of female athletes at the Olympics. Women's ice hockey had not been in the programme when Nagano, Japan had won the right to host the Olympics in June 1991, and the decision required approval by the Nagano Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (NAOOC). The NAOOC was initially hesitant to include the event because of the additional costs of staging the tournament and because they felt their team, which had failed to qualify for that year's World Championships, could not be competitive. According to Glynis Peters, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association's (CAHA) head of female hockey, "the Japanese would have to finance an entirely new sports operation