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Canada flagbearer Hayley Wickenheiser: ‘I always worry about the future of women’s hockey’

Neate Sager

Imagine there was a women's team sport at the Olympics one country had dominated for the past five games, with only four other nations splitting the silvers and bronzes in that time.

There would be a consternation over whether it belongs in the IOC's programme. Yet women's basketball is in no danger of ever being dropped. (The United States has won the last five golds, but G8 nations such as France and Russia squeak on to the podium once in a while.) Now that Sochi 2014 is here, and media who ordinarily aren't around the women's game have to cover it, ergo, women's hockey is on thin ice, at least for purposes of narrative. Canada's flagbearer and veteran forward Hayley Wickenheiser gave an interview to The Globe & Mail on Wednesday where the choice quote was, "I always worry about the future of women’s hockey, mainly because of the fact that most of the world pays attention to the game only two weeks out of every four years."

Taken one way, it reignites the debate that flared after teams Canada and USA steamrolled everyone in Vancouver four years ago. Taken another, it was simply a comment there has been improvement among European countries, but not enough to close the gap on North America. At least Russia coach Mikhail Chekanov understands what's at stake in having a women's team at the Olympics: "It will be very interesting for the girls to be among the great players, to talk to them, or just to take a picture with them ...The boys could talk to the girls and unload some of their emotional weight."

(Never change, Russia. You're doing super.)

Here's Wickenheiser, via Paul Waldie:

“The problem is that Canada and the U.S. continue to improve and it’s harder for the other countries to catch up. So that’s a dilemma that women’s hockey is always going to face,” she said. “But the reality is that we are so much further ahead in this time span than if you look at say the history of where men’s hockey was at this time. I think the game has really come a long way in the [four] Olympics that we’ve seen.”

She added that “federations have to show that they are investing in their women’s hockey program. But for me it’s a legitimate Olympic sport.” And she said she hopes the IOC looks beyond what happens at the Games. “What I think the IOC would be smart to do is look at it on a continual evolving basis and say, ‘Hey, is the game growing every year and show us proof that it’s developing and that there’s good competition and improvement in competition’. That’s what I would base it on not necessarily one Olympic competition.” (The Globe & Mail)

The 35-year-old Wickenheiser is spot on in saying her sport is further ahead then the men's game. Sochi will mark the fifth women's tournament. At the fifth men's tournament in Germany in 1936, Canada took silver behind a Great Britain team that was stocked almost wholly with Canadians with British passports. At the sixth in 1948, Canada outscored the 'opposition' 69-5. Please bear in mind this wasn't even a true national team going over; Canada sent a senior amateur squad in those days.

Yet there is reason to be concerned, since the IOC tends to have a Eurasian bias and women's hockey is the preserve of North America, which of course is in no way related to the fact Russia's coach sounds like an eHarmony ad, although he was probably joshing:

Russia's men's and women's hockey players hope to win medals at the Sochi Olympics, although if that doesn't happen, they still find happiness.Women's coach Mikhail Chekanov said Wednesday that he would like to see his players and the men get better acquainted in the event that "all of a sudden somebody might fall in love."

"Maybe the two teams will go on an evening walk together, chat a little," Chekanov told the Olympic news service. "It will be very interesting for the girls to be among the great players, to talk to them, or just to take a picture with them."(CP)

Ultimately, whether women's hockey stays probably comes down to TV ratings globally, like anything else. In that realm, the astonishing part about the IOC nearly dropping wrestling was that it did so after giving the 2020 Summer Games to Tokyo, Japan, where wrestling is a huge. Having a large country such as Russia show interest in its women's team helps a lot.

It is expected Russia, which won bronze at the 2013 worlds in Ottawa, will put up a proud fight.

"They don't want to be embarrassed," Wickenheiser recently told CBC's The Hour. They're a proud hockey nation. Being there and seeing Alexei Yashin, full equipment, being on the ice with the women's team, practising, and talking to him afterwards, big expression of joy at being around this team and trying to help them get to the next level."

Whether that commitment endures beyond Sochi is another story. Ask a British basketball player how they've made out with funding since London 2012.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.