Well yeah, but I’d honestly be surprised if Russia weren’t in medal contending form, they always are. Russia has been one of the top nations in ice hockey for many many years and there’s no reason to think otherwise.
They have a good non-NHL team (they did win gold in Beijing after all…), and with NHL players finally returning to the Olympics they’ll be even stronger. Some of the players like Kucherov have spoken about the upcoming Olympics and are quite keen to represent their countries if given the chance of course.
The last time Russia played was in February 2022 in Beijing at the Olympics, and Belarus probably even earlier. We don't know what form these teams are in, which players will decide to play at the Olympics, etc. For example, Italy in football, less than a year after winning Euro 2021, didn`t qualify for the World Cup after losing at home to North Macedonia...
Just found out that there is an annual triathlon race in the centre of Paris that does NOT use the Seine but still takes in all the main city centre sites. So literally all they had to do was just use that route for the swimming, and the whole soap opera could have been avoided. But no no no, they knew best....
https://www.timeto.com/Assets/CP_Garmin22_UK.pdf
By the way, why does Russia still have a chance at the Olympics ticket and Belarus doesn't? In theory, each team should have an equal chance and, for example, maybe they should play a play-off games for that place in a format like Russia-Belarus-France-Norway?