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Olympics dropping women’s hockey will ‘never happen,’ says IIHF boss
For once, teams Canada and USA are prepping for an Olympic women's gold-medal game without any media-driven narrative about whether it will be the last.
Thursday's joust for gold is pretty much an inevitable matchup, pitting the speedy Americans vs. the sage Canadians. Along the way, though, there was some upheaval; Switzerland-Sweden for the bronze medal on Thursday morning is considered a sign of increasing competitiveness among the second tier, bearing in mind there's a very steep drop-off from the topmost echelon that might never be corrected. At least the official tone was gone from "we cannot continue without improvement" to the International Ice Hockey Federation saying that cutting women's hockey from the Games will "never happen."
The fine print is that female hockey is a regional sport and will continue to be without investment. How one addresses the gap in numbers between North America and Europe is hard to say. Nothing's really changed per se, except learning to like it and lump it.
From Eric Duhatschek:
[IIHF president Rene Fasel said] there were 80,000 registered female players in Canada and another 60,000 in the United States, while most countries in Europe and Asia had fewer than 5,000 players.
“That makes a huge difference,” said Fasel. “But together with USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, we really worked together with a mentor program and invested into clinics and training camps for goalies. We invested over two million Swiss francs from Vancouver until now. I was personally the chairman of the women’s committee, so we push them.”
... "It's much better, but we are not there yet," said Fasel. “I really hope in Pyeongchang, we will have a better result, but we have to work hard.
“We need time. Give me a little more time.” (Globe & Mail, Feb. 18)
The fact of the matter is that even with a guarantee of an all-North American battle for gold, people still watch women's hockey, which someone suggested prior to Sochi will be the ultimate argument for retaining it. More than 5 million people in Canada watched the Canada-U.S. first-round game.
There are also a lot of Olympic sports where one country, two at the outside, see a gold medal as a birthright. Perhaps those escape the same scrutiny since they are individual events and there is a strong association with a competitor than with the countries who are dominating. Or it could be due to double standards.
That means, as Damien Cox put it, women's hockey "is actually more like most Winter Olympic sports."
In other words, that's kind of the status quo, accepting the imperfections. That's not really progress in full.
From Ken Campbell:
The IIHF launched a $2.1 million mentoring program after Vancouver to close the gap and it has helped, but more needs to be done. A lot more, with a lot more money. As Canadian coach Kevin Dineen said, “We need funding. We need it in Sweden and Finland and Switzerland.” And Canada and USA have to be at the forefront of this, knowing full well that they could be giving programs in other countries the tools to beat them in the future.
There are currently five teams in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, which is recognized as the best league in the world. How about reserving four or five roster spots per team for import players? The ones who are displaced could then go to Europe and play in their leagues to raise the level of competition. Perhaps Canada and USA could import more coaches to work there on a permanent basis. (It would be even better if USA Hockey could somehow convince U.S. colleges to take more foreign players such as [Swiss goalie Florence] Schelling. Those teams work out every day and approach the game from as close to a professional attitude as you’re going to see.)
The problem is that Canada and USA continue to push each other to get better and they have the resources to do so. In an Olympic cycle, both federations can afford to centralize their teams for the full year before the Olympics. Unfortunately, that’s making the gap between them and the others wider. (The Hockey News, Feb. 17)
Resources are going to be a problem. Not to single out any one country, but it's glaring that Sweden, which overhauled its youth system and is pumping out world junior championship medals and high NHL draft picks, hasn't improved on the women's side.
Point being, at least there's been somewhat of an attitude adjustment. But that doesn't answer questions about moving ahead without a pro league (the CWHL covers expenses but players aren't paid) or a creative way to increase the foreign talent pool.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
