Second women’s Para Ice Hockey Cup begins

The growth of women’s Para ice hockey continues with the Women’s World Development Cup from 1-6 May in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The event will have participants from more than 10 countries and aims to identify and form new athletes, taking the sport to new regions.

Parallel to the Development Cup, the second edition of the Women’s Para Ice Hockey Cup will also take place until 5 May with USA, Canada and Team Europe, which includes the best players from across the continent.

The teams will face each other twice, with the two best advancing into the final. USA took gold in the first edition held in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, in 2014, following a 5-1 victory over the hosts.

The Women’s World Development Cup has the support of the Agitos Foundation, the development arm of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), through the Grant Support Programme.

World Para Ice Hockey and the Agitos Foundation have already delivered a very successful programme with the 'Actualising the Dream' Project in partnership with the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee. Through the project, four countries (Armenia, Australia, Kazakhstan and the Netherlands) received Para ice hockey equipment to develop the sport in their countries.

The project also included a camp in PyeongChang in 2017 for female players from all over the world. One of the players was Norway’s Lena Schroeder, who became the second woman to participate in Para ice hockey at a Winter Paralympics when she took to the ice at PyeongChang 2018.