Ice Hockey – Women’s Hockey Players Have To Raise Their Voice To Qualify For Their World

After being canceled in 2020, then postponed until 2021, the Women’s Ice Hockey Worlds will finally take place. It will happen next week, in the middle of summer, in Calgary, Canada. To be able to compete in this major event in the women’s hockey calendar, girls on the Swiss team and girls from other elite countries had to overcome disappointments, maintain patience and confidence, and above all fight so that their competition would end. Ho.

“In 2020, the first major disappointment occurred when all international competitions were canceled due to COVID, recalls Sarah Forster, one of the Swiss selection routines. The following year, in the spring of 2021, the slap was even stronger. We were about to fly to Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada. But 12 hours before the plane took off, a message in the team’s WhatsApp group told us that the tournament was canceled due to the health situation in the province of Nova Scotia! It was a shock to everyone, especially since we were at the receiving end.” The competition was scheduled to take place on May 6-16.

While the International Ice Hockey Federation was doing everything possible to maintain the men’s competitions (the World Championship eventually moved to Latvia instead of Minsk and a health “bubble”, as well as the Under-20 Junior World Cup held in Edmonton participated), the girls were somewhat pushed aside: no world competition for them for the second year in a row, they learned at the end of April.

“We decided to make our voices heard then,” recalls Sarah Forster, a bronze medalist at the Sochi Olympics in 2014. Of the ten teams competing in the world, three girls per team sent a testimony via Zoom to the IIHF President. , René Fasel. We explained the importance of this tournament to all of us. This is my only chance to show myself outside of the Olympic Games.” Message broadcast and overheard: Fasel, IIHF and Hockey Canada have finally found an alternative. The Worlds in Calgary in August.

The Swiss team began its “Express” preparation in June with weekly ice sessions and condition training, before increasing the pace significantly in recent weeks. “We just finished our training camp in Cham (Jug) at the OYM Demonstration Center (Editor’s note: where EV Zug and the Swiss men’s team also train) And let’s all get out of the seven-day quarantine, ”says Sarah Forster, from the bus that took the Swiss to Germany. It was from Munich that they left for Calgary at the end of the day on Tuesday, in a charter, in the company of the Czech and Hungarian national teams.

However, in order to play these Worlds, the Swiss will have to be patient and overcome other obstacles. A new five-day quarantine awaits them upon arrival in Calgary, and they will then be tested every other day for the duration of the tournament. Strict distance rules will also have to be followed.

“90% of the people on the team have been vaccinated,” said Sarah Forster, who also gave them two doses of the vaccine. This was a recommendation from our union, but by no means an obligation. Players will not survive multiple screening tests during the tournament,” explains Jurassian.

To compete in these worlds in which they were so keen, the Swiss are ready to go with their pockets in their fists. “Given the circumstances, it will not always be clear, admits Sarah Forster. But we are very happy to be able to cross the Atlantic again and play in the homeland of hockey again.”

The first match of the Swiss team will be on 20 August against the big favorites of America. The competition will end on August 31.