The U-18 Women’s World Championships could still go ahead after Hockey Canada and the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association rule

EDMONTON – The 2022 U18 Women’s World Championship is not over yet with Hockey Canada President Tom Renney encouraging IIHF President Luc Tardif to reconsider canceling the event and the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association se offers to organize it.

“We have talked to the IIHF every day since we were here (at the junior world championships) and yesterday we talked to Luc (IIHF president Luc Tardif) about maybe a postponement for a cancellation,” Renney told The Star. ” We certainly think it is worthy of discussion.

“But we are not really the ones in a position to dictate the terms. We are certainly happy to participate in any discussion. That’s all I can say right now, because today is not our decision. “

This is the second year in a row the women’s under-18s have been canceled, rather than rescheduled, and that upset many, including OWHA executive Fran Rider. She has been hopeful that the international hockey community will come to its senses and find a way to celebrate the event canceled earlier this week by the Swedish federation over COVID concerns.

The cycling organization expressed through social networks and privately to Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation that it would intervene to carry out the U-18 event if Sweden does not want to or cannot.

“Our goal is to make this event happen,” said Rider, OWHA’s CEO. “We would love to organize it. It will be an honor for us to be the host. We would love to work with Hockey Canada, the IIHF and the federations to make this happen. The key for us is that it happens.

“These are big events for the players and it was disappointing that we lost that group of people who actually qualified for (last year’s) event,” added Rider. “When this was canceled, we felt we should step up and offer ourselves as a host.”

As far as she knows, no other hockey jurisdiction has stepped up.

Give The women’s tournament, scheduled for January, was canceled just as the men’s U-20 championship began, it was a hot topic and a clear indication to many that the IIHF treats women as second-class citizens.

Athletes within hockey, such as Hayley Wickenheiser, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Ray Ferraro, Shannon Szabados; and celebrities like Gerry Dee were offended by what they saw as a double standard.

“Nothing to do with security,” Wickenheiser tweeted, “if they call for the (Youth World Cup). Where there is a will, there is always a way. I question the ‘will’ part. “

Adam Steiss, a spokesman for the IIHF, did not deny that the economy among global youth men and female youth under 18 was a factor.

“There will always be a financial incentive to play the World Championships and World Juniors, simply because the revenue generated from these two events supports all of our other IIHF tournaments, including 12 international senior women’s and under-18 women’s international events in which more than half of our 82 National Member Associations participate in a normal year.

“The business of the IIHF is to play tournaments, not to cancel tournaments, but the Council, as with all the events of the previous season, chose to follow the recommendations of the medical committee. It is a COVID-19 problem and not a gender problem. The medical committee’s recommendation to cancel the six events in January (two male Under-20s, four female Under-18s) took into account the travel risks that teams playing in the January tournaments would have faced. There is a strong belief within the medical committee that the Omicron variant will peak until January, and that the tournament organizers for these events would not have been able to safely handle an outbreak. The protocols that the IIHF created for these events were also not applicable due to the Omicron variant. “

Steiss said the reason this did not affect world juniors was that they were in the bubble on December 15, before the spread of the variant.

“You can see how much it changed within that time frame by looking at the NHL and the Olympics,” he said. “On the 15th, when we got to Edmonton, they were still going to Beijing, and by the 22nd they had left.”

Rider and others wonder why events are being canceled, rather than postponed. Hockey Canada managed to reschedule the women’s world championships from Halifax to Calgary due to COVID-19 concerns earlier this year.

“Women’s sport should be given more priority,” Rider said. “Certainly the World Juniors has been gone for the last two years. And these (female) events and should also go ahead. And we understand that there may be some reprogramming or some timing situations. We fully understand the COVID pandemic and how it fluctuates, changes and mutates.

“Not a lot of money is invested in women’s sports and hockey. So when countries have the opportunity to compete on the world stage, at whatever level, there is an infusion of support and money that goes into these games and these players. And that is absolutely fundamental for the growth of women’s sport and also for the growth of an improvement of women as leaders. “