ZURICH – With the conclusion of all Women’s World Championship tournaments at all levels the IIHF released on Monday the 2013 IIHF Women’s World Ranking that is now led by the United States.

Click here for the 2013 IIHF Women’s World Ranking.

The U.S. claimed back first place from Canada after winning the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship on the opponent’s ice in Ottawa. Canada fell to second place in the new ranking.

Finland remains in third place and is now followed by Russia. One year before the Olympics on home ice the Russian women’s national team won the bronze medals in Ottawa and overtook Switzerland (5th) and Sweden (6th) in the ranking to reach fourth place – its highest placement ever.

After re-establishing itself in the top division, Germany moved up another spot and is now seventh before eighth-placed Slovakia. After its first-ever participation in the top division, the Czech Republic improved by three places and is now ranked at an all-time ninth place. Japan, which qualified for the 2014 Olympics recently, moved up one spot to tenth place at the expense of Norway (11th).

Another big jump was done by Austria, which moved from 15th to 12th. Kazakhstan suffered the biggest drop after being relegated from the top division to the third tier within just two years and is now 14th just behind Latvia but still before China, France and Denmark.

The 2013 IIHF Women’s World Ranking includes 36 nations that have participated in the Women’s World Championship program in the last three years, in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and/or its qualification tournaments.

The next big event will be the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament in Sochi in February 2014. The seeding has already been done earlier according to the 2012 IIHF Women’s World Ranking and has Canada, the U.S., Finland and Switzerland play in Group A; and Sweden, Russia, Germany and Japan in the lower-tiered Group B.