{"id":674317,"date":"2026-05-16T08:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674317\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T08:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:06:10","slug":"2026-mens-u18-world-ranking-australia-remains-steady-at-33rd-ice-hockey-news-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674317\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Men\u2019s U18 World Ranking: Australia remains steady at 33rd \u2013 Ice Hockey News Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Thumbnail-Australian-men-U18-002.png\" alt=\"Ice Hockey News Australia Australian men's national under-18 ice hockey team featured image thumbnail\" title=\"Thumbnail-Australian-men-U18-002\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Australian men\u2019s under-18 national team has maintained its place at 33rd in the world rankings following the conclusion of the\u00a02026 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championships, which ran from\u00a013 February to 2 May 2026 across seven tournaments, and the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Asia Cup, which ran from 27 April to 3 May 2026. In 2026, 49 countries and two regions participated in the U18 World Championships and U18 Asia Cup, with Sweden claiming the gold medal in the Championship division. In the last ten years, Australia\u2019s best ranking as been 30th which they held in 2018 and their lowest was 34th in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The ranking is based on the results from 2023 to 2026 and includes the U18 World Championships and the Asia Cup (previously known as the Asia and Oceania Championship). The points system is the same as the one used by the\u00a0International Ice Hockey Federation for the senior men\u2019s and women\u2019s national teams. It also makes the same allowances for countries who have been unable to participate, like Belarus and Russia which are currently expelled from the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Australia\u2019s ranking over the past ten years2017201820192020202132nd30th31st33rd33rd20222023<a href=\"https:\/\/icehockeynewsaustralia.com\/2024\/05\/14\/2024-mens-u18-world-ranking-australia-remains-steady-at-34th\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2024<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/icehockeynewsaustralia.com\/2025\/05\/17\/2025-mens-u18-world-ranking-australia-moves-up-to-33rd\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2025<\/a>202633rd34th34th33rd33rdWorld RankingsRankTeamPoints+\/\u20131Sweden3,920+12Canada3,820\u201313Slovakia3,810+24United States3,780\u201315Russia3,775\u201316Czechia3,660+17Finland3,610\u201318Latvia3,600\u20139Germany3,415+210Belarus3,415\u201311Norway3,400+112Switzerland3,395\u2013313Denmark3,335+114Kazakhstan3,260\u2013115Ukraine3,215\u201316Hungary3,135\u201317Slovenia3,080+118Austria3,055\u2013119Poland2,935+420Lithuania2,925+121France2,890\u2013122Estonia2,840+223Japan2,835\u2013424South Korea2,815\u2013225Italy2,770\u201326Great Britain2,625\u201327China2,555+328Romania2,530\u201329Croatia2,530\u2013230Netherlands2,455\u2013131Spain2,415\u201332Serbia2,325\u201333Australia2,275\u201334Chinese Taipei2,220\u201335Belgium2,190+136Mexico2,175+237Bulgaria2,090\u2013238Israel2,040\u2013139T\u00fcrkiye1,995\u201340Hong Kong1,940+241New Zealand1,870\u201342Uzbekistan1,860+443Iceland1,850\u2013344Thailand1,755+145Bosnia and Herzegovina1,735\u2013246Turkmenistan1,675+147South Africa1,615\u2013348Luxembourg1,270\u201349Mongolia1,040\u201350India820+251Indonesia800+552Macau780+253Kyrgyzstan600+454United Arab Emirates445\u2013455Iran430\u2013456Malaysia270\u2013357Kuwait250\u2013258Ireland\u2014\u201359Armenia\u2014\u201360North Korea\u2014\u2013Further information<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian men\u2019s under-18 national team has maintained its place at 33rd in the world rankings following the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-674317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}