All about Ice Hockey for Women

Probably one of the fastest growing women’s sports in the world, ice hockey has seen over a 300 percent increase in participants over the last decade. It is true that there are not many organized leagues for women as there are for men, but there do exist leagues for women. They include the National Women’s Hockey League, Western Women’s Hockey League, and various European leagues; and university teams, national and Olympic teams, and recreational teams. There have been nine IIHF World Women Championships. Today, legends such as Hayley Wickenheiser, Cassie Campbell and Cammi Granato are well known due to the popularity of the game.

According to the Canadian Hockey Association the first recorded women’s hockey game took place in 1892 in Barrie, Ontario, while other records indicate that in 1969-70, the first professional female hockey player, Karen Koch entered the arena. Close to twenty years later, the women’s ice hockey was added as a medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Women’s ice hockey differs from that of men’s as body checking is not allowed in the former; and women are required to wear protective full-face masks.

In its early days, the game didn’t receive much support. One reporter in the Toronto News penned the following poem:

When girls play hockey they can take
Some very fearsome blows
With unconcern they will receive
A “smash” on the nose.
But if, while washing dishes, one
Should cut her dainty hand
She screams and faints. The cause of it.
We cannot understand.

Women’s ice hockey is played in at least twenty-six countries. This includes a number of European countries and recent developments include places in Asia like China and Japan.