The intoxicating performances of the women’s national soccer team swept half the nation away in July. Quite a few people even find that big football has already passed its peak for the year with the European Championship in England. Now it remains to be seen how much interest the footballers will ultimately arouse in their World Cup, which was sold to Qatar with an unbelievable ignorance of healthy human rights. In fact, in many other team sports, women don’t even remotely come close to their male counterparts in terms of attention and rewards. Ice hockey is the best example of this.
The women’s ice hockey world championship started on Thursday in Denmark, in Fredrikshavn and Herning. Female ice hockey players are in every respect overshadowed by their male colleagues, there are no professional leagues in Europe, the German Women’s Ice Hockey League (DFEL) comprises just six teams, there used to be more. The rules are also different from those for men. Like all juniors up to the age of 18, the women must play with a full visor, and most checks are not allowed.
Nevertheless, the jammer mode is not conducive to bringing a product forward in the long run. And media presence is of course a savior: The streaming service “Magentasport” shows all group games of the German team at this World Cup as well as games from the quarter-finals live – as long as the Germans are still there. And it’s free too, fans don’t need to subscribe. A surprisingly good offer. The only thing missing is the good performances of the team.
But that won’t be easy, the Germans can’t keep up with the absolute world leaders, the teams from the USA and Canada and recently also from Finland. Something is maybe possible behind it, there have already been respectable successes in the past, whereby the recently missed Olympic qualification for Beijing may have thrown back the ice hockey project for women in Germany.
In Denmark there was already a men’s ice hockey world championship in 2018
Before the trip to Denmark, national coach Thomas Schädler said: “We are well prepared, but we have to perform to our best ability so that we can win.” The Germans had to play against Hungary on Thursday at 3.30 p.m. (live on Magentasport), in During the preparation they had played against this opponent twice and won twice.
In the preliminary round, the German team will also face Sweden in Group B on Saturday (3.30 p.m.) and then later the Czech Republic and Denmark. The teams from Japan, Canada, USA, Finland and Switzerland are active in Group A – and all of them qualified for the quarter-finals. From the weaker group B, only the first three teams make it to the quarter-finals. This is also a special feature of women’s ice hockey.
After all, Denmark is new territory for such an event, in 2018 the first men’s A World Championships took place there – with great success and in larger arenas than the women’s tournament now. Michelle Karvinen, player of the Finnish team and born in Denmark, says: “I never thought that there would be a World Cup in Denmark. Of course that’s something very special for me and for the girls from Denmark.” Maybe even bigger steps will soon be possible in women’s ice hockey – the sport should still have its future ahead of it.
Source: Tagesspiegel
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