![\"KCCI](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768578693_964_kcci.png\")
<\/p>\nIowa Wild players to compete in Winter Olympics for Slovakia and Czech Republic<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIS IOWA\u2019S NEWS LEADER KCCI EIGHT NEWS AT FIVE STARTS RIGHT NOW. THE COUNTDOWN IS ON. WE ARE JUST WEEKS AWAY FROM THE START OF THE 2026 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES. THOUSANDS OF ATHLETES FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD WILL MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE BIG STAGE IN ITALY TO COMPETE FOR GOLD. AND OF COURSE, IT WOULDN\u2019T BE THE WINTER OLYMPICS WITHOUT HOCKEY. OF COURSE NOT. IN SOME IOWA WILD, PLAYERS IN DES MOINES ARE GETTING READY TO HEAD TO MILAN TO REPRESENT THEIR COUNTRIES. KCCI SHANNON EHRHARDT SHOWS US WHICH STARS ON THE ICE ARE HEADING TO ITALY. WELL, YOU GUYS, I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNOW THIS. FIRST THINGS FIRST. IT\u2019S THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2014 THAT NHL PLAYERS WILL BE COMPETING IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES. YOU MIGHT SAY, WHAT DO YOU MEAN? WELL, I MEAN THAT THE NHL IS TAKING AN OFFICIAL OLYMPIC BREAK THE IOWA WILD WILL HAVE TWO GUYS REPRESENTED AT THIS YEAR\u2019S OLYMPICS, BUT IT WON\u2019T BE FOR TEAM USA. GOALIE SAMUEL HALABI WILL PLAY FOR TEAM SLOVAKIA, AND DEFENSEMAN DAVID SPACEK IS ON THE CZECH TEAM. SPACEK LEADS THE TEAM IN ASSISTS AND RANKS SECOND IN POINTS. THE DEFENSEMAN ACTUALLY JUST GOT RECALLED TO MINNESOTA, SO HE\u2019S NOT WITH IOWA AT THE MOMENT. THIS IS STAR TREK\u2019S FIRST OLYMPICS, BUT HIS FATHER, JAROSLAV SPACEK, IS A THREE TIME OLYMPIAN. THIS WILL ALSO BE SAMUEL HOLLOWAY\u2019S FIRST OLYMPICS. HE WILL START IN GOAL FOR SLOVAKIA. HOLLOWAY COMES WITH GLOBAL EXPERIENCE AS HE\u2019S PLAYED IN THREE WORLD JUNIORS AND THREE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. HE SAID TO REPRESENT HIS COUNTRY AT THE OLYMPICS IS A DREAM COME TRUE. BUT IF HE WERE TO COMPETE IN A DIFFERENT SPORT, HE\u2019D CHOOSE THE BIATHLON. I DON\u2019T KNOW IF IT\u2019S CALLED HERE THE SAME AS IN BIATHLON. IS IT CALLED HERE AS WELL? IS IT LIKE YOU RUN ON A SKI WITH THE GUN ON YOUR BACK AND SHOOTING? THAT FASCINATES ME BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO RUN. IT\u2019S IN SKIS AND THEN YOU ARE LIKE, GASSED OUT AND THEN YOU HAVE TO SHOOT. AND IF YOU MISS, YOU HAVE TO RUN ANOTHER ROUND, YOU KNOW? IT\u2019S FASCINATING. ME, I ALWAYS LIKE TO WATCH IT ON TV. I HONESTLY DON\u2019T KNOW WHAT HOCKEY HAS TO DO WITH BIATHLON. AND IF THOSE SKILLS REALLY TRANSLATE. BUT HIS ANSWER WAS AUTOMATIC WHEN WE ASKED HIM ABOUT THIS. BUT HE WILL BE STARTING IN GOAL, NOT DOING THE BIATHLON FOR SLOVAKIA COME FEBRUARY. A LOT OF I TOLD US HE LEAVES FOR ITALY FEBRUARY 7TH. THE MEN\u2019S HOCKEY TOURNAMENT STARTS FEBRUARY 11TH. YOU GUYS THANKS SHANNON. CLEARLY HE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BEFORE. IN WEST DES MOINES, NATIVE IS ON A FAST TRACK TO MAKE HISTORY. ZACH STOPPEL MORE WILL BE CHASING GOLD IN THE WINTER GAMES. HE COMPETES FEBRUARY 14TH. YOU CAN HEAR HOW ZACH MADE HIS BIG DREAM COME TRU\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Iowa Wild players to compete in Winter Olympics for Slovakia and Czech Republic<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tUpdated: 8:49 AM CST Jan 16, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\tTwo players from the Iowa Wild are preparing to represent their countries at the Winter Olympics in Milan, with goalie Samuel Hlavaj playing for Slovakia and defenseman David \u0160pa\u010dek joining the Czech team.\u0160pa\u010dek leads the team in assists and ranks second in points. The defenseman has been recalled to Minnesota, so he is not currently with Iowa. This will be \u0160pa\u010dek’s first Olympics, but his father, Jaroslav \u0160pa\u010dek, is a three-time Olympian who won both gold and bronze with the Czech Republic.This will also be Samuel Hlavaj’s first Olympics, where he will start in goal for Slovakia. Hlavaj has previously played in three World Juniors and three World Championships, but he said this experience is different. Hlavaj is set to leave for the Olympics on Feb. 7, with the men’s tournament starting on Feb. 11.In other news for the Iowa Wild, rookie forward Hunter Haight has been selected for the AHL All-Star team. The All-Star Classic is scheduled for Feb. 10 and 11 in Rockford, Illinois.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tDES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Two players from the Iowa Wild are preparing to represent their countries at the Winter Olympics in Milan, with goalie Samuel Hlavaj playing for Slovakia<\/a> and defenseman David \u0160pa\u010dek joining the Czech team<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u0160pa\u010dek leads the team in assists and ranks second in points. The defenseman has been recalled to Minnesota, so he is not currently with Iowa. This will be \u0160pa\u010dek’s first Olympics, but his father, Jaroslav \u0160pa\u010dek, is a three-time Olympian who won both gold and bronze with the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n This will also be Samuel Hlavaj’s first Olympics, where he will start in goal for Slovakia. Hlavaj has previously played in three World Juniors and three World Championships, but he said this experience is different. <\/p>\n Hlavaj is set to leave for the Olympics on Feb. 7, with the men’s tournament starting on Feb. 11.<\/p>\n In other news for the Iowa Wild, rookie forward Hunter Haight has been selected for the AHL All-Star team. The All-Star Classic is scheduled for Feb. 10 and 11 in Rockford, Illinois.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iowa Wild players to compete in Winter Olympics for Slovakia and Czech Republic IS IOWA\u2019S NEWS LEADER KCCI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[401,51588,51704,9439,51703,7874,51705,26601,51700,51702,17229,5,7439,8558,7876,44908,15213,51701,161,38,5280,4,4327,7440,4507,47713,2101,162,2787],"class_list":["post-410990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-wild","tag-ahl","tag-ahl-all-star-classic","tag-bronze","tag-czech-republic","tag-czech-team","tag-david-spacek","tag-defenseman-david-spacek","tag-feb","tag-first-olympics","tag-goalie-samuel-hlavaj","tag-hlavaj","tag-hockey","tag-hunter-haight","tag-iowa","tag-iowa-wild","tag-kcci","tag-milan","tag-milan-winter-olympics","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-minnesotawild","tag-nhl","tag-rookie","tag-samuel-hlavaj","tag-slovakia","tag-spacek","tag-tournament","tag-wild","tag-winter-olympics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115905580898654429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}