The last World Para Ice Hockey season included gold-medal thrillers, opportunities for athletes and officials to grow the game, and inspiring success stories shared on the global stage.
With the year coming to a close, here is a lookback at the top moments for World Para Ice Hockey in 2024.
Canada breaks through for A-Pool gold
After three straight runner-up finishes against its arch-rivals, Canada finally upset No.1-seeded USA to win gold on its home ice at the World Para Ice Hockey Championships A-Pool in Calgary in May. The astounding victory marked Canada’s fifth world title in the sport and first since 2017, breaking the United States dynasty, as Team USA were left to settle for silver at WinSport Arena for the first time in seven years.
Norway takes B-Pool in a thriller
Norway clinched the gold in an overtime thriller on its home ice in Skien at the World Para Ice Hockey Championships B-Pool in April to move to the A-Pool for next season. In front of a sizable and noisy crowd, it was Morten Vaernes who played hero with a gold-medal winning goal in overtime against Germany in the final.
Finns win C-Pool
Top-seeded Finland narrowly defeated Thailand, 1-0, in an exciting gold-medal clash to win the World Para Ice Hockey Championships C-Pool and advance to the B-Pool for next season. The gold-medal contest was played in front of Her Majesty Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana of Thailand. Finland swept all three Best Player Directorate awards at the event, as Karko was named Best Goaltender, Pajula was named Best Defenseman and Aaron Hanninen was named Best Forward.
U.S. Women reign supreme
Team USA won gold for the third consecutive year at the World Para Ice Hockey Women’s World Challenge in October with an undefeated record in Skien, Norway. Outscoring their four opponents, 27-0, the U.S. has now won every edition of the event while Canada claimed a silver medal and Team Europe took the bronze. It marked the largest edition of the event in history as Team Europe and Team Pacific hit the international ice for the first time, having previously competed as a combined Team World.
Developing the game
Nearly 40 athletes from six different countries took part in the third edition of the World Para Ice Hockey Skills Development camp in November in Dolny Kubin, Slovakia, including first-timers Hungary, Ukraine and the Netherlands. There were participants from Slovakia, France and Finland joining the camp. Seven of them were women, enhancing the development pipeline to grow the female game as well, with the camp presented by Citi, a founding partner of the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) PARA SPORT grassroots to high performance programme.
Building the officiating pipeline
The first-ever World Para Ice Hockey Officiating Camp took place in November to train and evaluate promising future officials, referees and linespersons from around the world to further develop the sport. The camp was hosted by the Korea Ice Hockey Association at the Gangneung Hockey Centre, consisting of classroom sessions, video analysis, game simulation, skating training and evaluation.
Sharing success stories
World Para Ice Hockey Sport Manager Michelle Laflamme spoke at UNESCO’s and the IPC’s International Disability Inclusion Conference in Paris during the Paralympic Games about how World Para Ice Hockey has achieved remarkable progress in increasing women’s participation, with female representation rising from 0.01 percent to 19 percent. The event was attended by multiple government ministers, aiming to kick start a range of actions that will advance the rights and opportunities for the world’s 1.3 billion persons with disabilities. Laflamme shared insights about women’s development in Para ice hockey, including past challenges, best practices, and athlete pathways, keeping in mind that only three women have competed in sport at the Paralympic Winter Games previously.
Leading by Committee
World Para Ice Hockey put new names to both its Athletes’ Committee and Sport Committee as it continues to grow the most faced-paced Paralympic winter sport. Voted to the Athletes’ Committee were Dominic Cozzolino (Canada), Yifeng Shen (China), Stacey Quirk (Great Britain), Christoph Depaoli (Italy), Erica McKee (USA). Voted to the Sport Committee were: Dan Brennan (USA), Gregor Baumgartner (Austria), Chengyuan Liu (China), Jakub Novotny (Czechia) and Peggy Assinck (Great Britain).
