U.S. wins first Women’s Para Hockey World Championship

The U.S. routed Canada 7-1 to win the first edition of the World Para Women’s Hockey Championship on Sunday in Dolny Kubin, Slovakia.

Kelsey DiClaudio potted four goals, finishing with a tournament-leading 11 goals in four games.

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Jamie Benassi, Cahterine Faherty and Kaden Herchenroether also scored for the Americans, who outscored their four opponents by a combined 35-1.

Gabby Graves-Wake earned the victory in net.

Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, and the USA, alongside a Team World composed of players from various nations.

At the Paralympics, there is one hockey tournament where teams are allowed to field men and women.

A nation receives an extra roster spot reserved for a female player, should it choose one.

In Paralympic history, three women have played hockey at the Games — Britt Mjaasund Oeyen of Norway at the first tournament in 1994, Lena Schroeder of Norway in 2018 and Yu Jing of China in 2022.

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IPC President Andrew Parsons said in an interview that aired between the second and third periods that it’s possible a separate Paralympic women’s tournament is added as early as the 2030 Games in the French Alps.

“If you compare some of the top countries in Para ice hockey, like Canada and U.S., there’s a little bit of difference to the other ones,” he said. “Of course, we need to try to close that gap. But how we do that, we need to develop the sport in different parts of the world. We need to obviously include more females. It’s something new. They probably never heard of Para ice hockey that was open to them. So I think we support programs in different nations, little by little, we will be able to organize more World Championships, but also maybe regional, continental competitions so that we can have a strong pool to include it in the Paralympic Games.”

From 2022 through 2024, an annual women’s Para hockey world challenge tournament was held with four or five teams. The U.S. beat Canada in the final of each edition.

The U.S. swept all four world titles in hockey this year — the IIHF women’s world championship in April, the IIHF men’s world championship in May, the Para men’s world championship in May and now the first Para women’s world championship.

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The Milan Cortina Games open Feb. 6 (Olympics) and March 6 (Paralympics).