Japan and France extended the Women’s Worlds to ten teams in 2019. Pictured are Haruka Toko and Estelle Duvin.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
There are certain markers that form the pillars of the development of women’s hockey, and the most recent one came in 2019 when the senior Women’s World Championship expanded from eight teams to ten.
The genesis of this format started back in 2011, when the IIHF changed the way the groups were formed for tournament play. Previously, teams were split evenly across two or three groups, but starting in 2011 the top four seeds were placed in Group A and the bottom four in Group B.
This resulted in more competitive games between more like-skilled nations, and with a push from the IIHF Women’s Committee, the IIHF finally agreed to expand the top level from eight to ten teams for 2019.
The first year didn’t disappoint. Each group now consisted of five teams. All of Group A qualified for the quarter-finals, along with the top-three teams in Group B. The last two teams in Group B would be relegated, and that’s where a shock came.
Japan and France were promoted from Division I-A in 2018 to make the 9th and 10th teams in 2019, but on the last day of the Preliminary Round the Japanese stunned Sweden, 3-2, to finish in third place and drop Sweden to fourth. That meant the Swedes and French were demoted for 2020.
For Sweden, the loss was devastating. No Swedish team, men’s or women’s, at any level, had every played outside the top pool, but this 10-team format cost them dearly.
Hungary won Division I-A in 2019 under well-travelled coach Pat Cortina and was slated to make an historic appearance in 2020. It had played the World Women’s since 2003, but always at a lower level, so when it does compete at the next WW, it will do so in the top level for the first time.
From the first Women’s Worlds in 1990, to the elimination of body-checking two years later, the inclusion of women’s hockey at the Olympics, and the IIHF’s supporting the WW as an annual event; from the start of the 2008 Women’s U18 Worlds and the four-official system, the women’s game has grown and evolved over the last 30 years.
Ten teams in a tournament is just the most recent part of that development, and an important one at that if the women’s game is to continue to develop worldwide. The format was also approved by the IOC and will be implemented in the next Olympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022.
Click here for the overview of stories.
The genesis of this format started back in 2011, when the IIHF changed the way the groups were formed for tournament play. Previously, teams were split evenly across two or three groups, but starting in 2011 the top four seeds were placed in Group A and the bottom four in Group B.
This resulted in more competitive games between more like-skilled nations, and with a push from the IIHF Women’s Committee, the IIHF finally agreed to expand the top level from eight to ten teams for 2019.
The first year didn’t disappoint. Each group now consisted of five teams. All of Group A qualified for the quarter-finals, along with the top-three teams in Group B. The last two teams in Group B would be relegated, and that’s where a shock came.
Japan and France were promoted from Division I-A in 2018 to make the 9th and 10th teams in 2019, but on the last day of the Preliminary Round the Japanese stunned Sweden, 3-2, to finish in third place and drop Sweden to fourth. That meant the Swedes and French were demoted for 2020.
For Sweden, the loss was devastating. No Swedish team, men’s or women’s, at any level, had every played outside the top pool, but this 10-team format cost them dearly.
Hungary won Division I-A in 2019 under well-travelled coach Pat Cortina and was slated to make an historic appearance in 2020. It had played the World Women’s since 2003, but always at a lower level, so when it does compete at the next WW, it will do so in the top level for the first time.
From the first Women’s Worlds in 1990, to the elimination of body-checking two years later, the inclusion of women’s hockey at the Olympics, and the IIHF’s supporting the WW as an annual event; from the start of the 2008 Women’s U18 Worlds and the four-official system, the women’s game has grown and evolved over the last 30 years.
Ten teams in a tournament is just the most recent part of that development, and an important one at that if the women’s game is to continue to develop worldwide. The format was also approved by the IOC and will be implemented in the next Olympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022.
Click here for the overview of stories.