The World Para Ice Hockey Championship take place in Canada at the end of this month and the atmosphere is starting to build as the top eight ranked teams globally competing for a world title. The competition will take place from 28th May to the 4th June in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. It is an extremely momentous occasion which top sports professionals are training and gearing up for. It marks the first time the competition will be hosted by Hockey Canada and is the first major sporting event to be sanctioned and played in Canada apart from the Winter Paralympic games which was hosted by Vancouver in 2010.
World Para Ice Hockey is excited to bring the World Championships for the first time to Canada, a nation that has had tremendous success in the sport, winning medals and helping grow the game.
That’s according to World Para Ice Hockey Manager Michelle Laflamme.
This will be an opportunity for those in Canada and around the world to tune-in and see the best our sport has to offer with fierce competition and compelling storylines as we begin the next Paralympic cycle.
Defending champions, the USA will be hoping for a favourable draw to ensure that they can maintain their dominance with in the sport having won its record-breaking fifth world title in 2021 and Paralympic gold in Beijing in 2022. They have won five of the last seven World Championships which puts them in an extremely strong position this time round.
Host nation Canada is the reigning world and Paralympic silver medallists and have four world titles to its name, last claiming gold on the world stage in 2017.
Three-time World Championships medallists South Korea, Paralympic bronze medallists China, five-time World Championship medallists Norway, the next Paralympic Winter Games hosts Italy, as well as Czechia and Germany will also be taking part in the tournament meaning it is very hard to tell who may ultimately emerge as the winner.
As part of the competition, teams will be divided up in to two groups of four with the top two teams in each group progressing on to the semi finals. The puck will drop when Czechia faces Korea on 28 May in a rematch of the 2019 bronze-medal game, with Italy challenging China and Norway facing Germany in the opening day’s other games. The director of events and properties with Hockey Canada, Ryan Robins is delighted to to host the tournament and said:
Hockey Canada is thrilled to partner with the City of Moose Jaw to host the World Para Ice Hockey Championships this spring. Our organisation is committed to continuing to grow the para game, and hosting this prestigious event in Canada for the first time is a significant milestone. We are looking forward to a fantastic week of hockey and are excited to welcome the competing teams to Saskatchewan in May.
The tournament is being played in the fourth largest city in the province of Saskatchewan. Which mean that matches are more than likely going to attract a large audience which will help bring more revenue in to the sport. This will in turn cater for the facilities and mean that there will be enough funding available to help support the athletes involved. The mayor, Clive Tolley, said:
The City of Moose Jaw is very excited to welcome the world to our beautiful city and world-class facility this May, as we host the 2023 World Para Ice Hockey Championships. This is a first for Canada, Saskatchewan, and Moose Jaw and the positive social, economic and community impacts will be incredible. Hosting an International Championship of this calibre is something very special and we are very proud to be selected as the first in Canada to be the site of these championships.
More funding and exposure needs to be brought in to help ensure that different disability sports survive. The more exposure different sports get, the better chance different players have of being spotted by different advertisers and sponsors to help further their careers. This way there is more of a chance that they can earn and afford a better standard of living in order to survive.
