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Why Canada's Olympic Hockey Team Is Staying in Hotel Instead of Olympic Village
Team Canada’s hockey team isn’t embracing an important Olympic tradition.
While most athletes competing in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games will mix and mingle in the Olympic Village, goaltender Logan Thompson explained why the Canadian men’s hockey team has opted to stay in a hotel.
“I don’t think we’re doing it as an insult or anything like that,” Thompson, 28, told SportsNet in an interview published Feb. 9. “We want to win gold, and we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to do so.”
The men’s ice hockey team—which includes NHL stars Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and more—will start their competition run on Feb. 12, where they’ll face off against Team Czechia. Meanwhile, the women’s team won their first game against the Czech Republic earlier this week, but was defeated by Team USA on Feb. 10.(The latter team will also compete against Finland in their final group stage game Feb. 12 after a delay due to the Finnish team’s norovirus battle.)
Though Team Canada have found more comfort in a hotel, they haven’t completely walked away from the Olympic Village experience. They reportedly stayed in the village—whose accommodations are styled like dorm rooms—for the first few nights in Milan, but ultimately decided a hotel would better accommodate their needs.
However, Thompson will still visit the six different villages for two important reasons.
“You definitely want to get that experience. It’s cool to meet other athletes,” he explained, “and I want to be able to do that as well as see other Olympic events.”
In fact, Thompson noted he as well as teammates like Crosby and McDavid have already met a few other athletes so far, and those interactions feel surreal to him.
“You see everyone just staring at them, because they’re the superstars,” Thompson recalled. “It’s cool to see how other countries really notice them, and how they all just want to come over and say hi to Crosby and McDavid and those guys.”
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
And when the thousands of different teams aren’t getting to know each other, they’re also paying close attention to one detail in the dorm-styled villages: the beds. Indeed, the beds—which were originally introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—went viral for their cardboard structure, leading it to be labeled as an “anti-sex” sack of furniture.
The village continued to use the popular beds for five more years, but it seems they’ve upgraded the material for this year’s Olympics.
“I think it’s time to answer a question everyone’s been asking: Are the beds cardboard?” Team Great Britain ice dancer Phebe Bekker said in her Feb. 1 TikTok video, knocking on the bed’s frame and mattress to confirm the bed’s fabric. “You heard it here first. There are no cardboard beds. Well, as far as I know.”
Keep reading to see more notable moments at the 2026 Winter Olympics outside of the villages…
Daniel Kopatsch/VOIGT/Getty Images
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Bulgarian ski jumper Vladimir Zografski hits the brakes during a training session.
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Swept Away With Joy
American curler Korey Dropkin lets out a victorious shout after his team defeats Switzerland in a mixed doubles round bobin match.
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