Will IOC Pull the Plug for Women’s Hockey in Winter Olympics?
Angela Ruggiero, a US defenseman ice hockey player, said that women’s ice hockey should be retained its place in the Olympic program despite the unbeatable dominance of US and Canada. She concerned the development of women’s ice hockey outside North America which, according to her, hasn’t given the same opportunity to develop compared to men’s ice hockey. “Giving our sport more time to develop is the most important thing,” said Ruggiero.
She predicted that it would need more than four Olympics to fill in the gap between those countries and the giant US and Canada. This huge gap can be seen from last Olympic results. US team and Canada team met in final resulted in Canada’s winning with 2-0 score. They reached final by defeating two other semifinalist, Finland and Sweden, with such a big score gap. Finland’s record against combined US and Canada is 0-11 while Sweden recorded 2-22 defeat to both combined US and Canada.
In total, US and Canada have won all four women’s ice hockey Olympics titles since its participation in 1998 Olympics, 12 World championships and all 14 golds of Four Nation Cups. Being the new member of IOC since she was elected last month, she does have the power to make the women’s ice hockey to be kept at least for 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Tags: Angela Ruggiero, IOC, US and Canada dominance, Women's Ice Hockey
