Women's Ice Hockey IIHF Division I Group A World Championship 2026

[copravolley 656]

10 minutes ago, hckošice said:

Thanks. We´ll see. If it has to happen it will. It it does not have to happen yet, it will not... yet.

 

Our woman´s program is working a couple of years now with a group of girls since their early teenage years, through Youth Winter Olympics and EYOFs and several team meetings, the core of the group is still around late teen and early twentys. Also it is obviously build around Nela Lopušanová who is still 18 years old.

 

The goal was set for the Olympics, maybe 2030 will be too soon but the program is showing every year bigger results and is still not over, we hopw by 2034 being a competitive team at the Olympics.

 

For the worlds we also are trying step by step, so even if not tomorrow this group of girls will certainly qualify to the elite in the upcoming time and the goal is obviously to be able to stay there as well once our time will arrive.

 

 

In 2024, Italy beat Slovakia 3-2 at the World Champ Division I B, but objectively, we were two level under you in that time and now we're at a similar level. Italy won here surprisingly easily – it was even 6-2 on begining of 3 period, but Slovakia showed strength in the matches against Hungary and Norway. On paper, I think Hungary is still the best here, so you have a good chance against France – even a 2-point win is probably enough for you. Regarding Italy, in 2022/23, we even lost to Poland and Slovenia, so we've made significant progress. Now it's crucial to continue this project and avoid something like China. Italy always needs support from North America, but we also have good local players – for example, our leading striker: Mathilde Fantin, is a born in Italy- Cuneo.

Edited 1 hour ago by copravolley

[copravolley 656]

In Italy, it's generally impossible to watch it anywhere except on pay TV on our federation's website, which is of terrible quality: there's no clock, only the score. The 2026 Olympics were an exception, with women's hockey being on free-to-air television. Most people in southern Italy probably don't even know that women's hockey exists