Reference no: EM133014623

One of the biggest areas of growth has been among female participants, with participation by girls and women in ice hockey at an all-time high. In the United States alone, the number of girls and women playing, according to USA Hockey, was up 32 percent from 2007 to 2017 (Lissau 2017). High schools and colleges are adding teams, and youth developmental programs have popped up around the United States and Canada.

While women have played the sport since the 1980s, the first IIHF championship was not until 1990, and it did not debut as a medal sport in the Olympics until 1998. Since then, teams from the United States (1998 and 2018 Gold Medals) and Canada (Gold Medals in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014) have dominated the competition. The first intercollegiate championship for women in Canada was in 1998 and the first NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Championship was contested in 2001. In 2016, NCAA hockey players came from 13 different countries, 9 Canadian provinces, and 35 U.S. states (Haase 2017).

There are still some obstacles to participation. First, the sport still tends to be male dominated, with approximately 85 percent of all players being male. Further, the sport is still considered by many to be a masculine sport, which can marginalize female players. Second, the sport demands a lot of resources because equipment can be very expensive and ice time can be difficult to find. Additionally, the lack of local teams often forces teams to incur significant travel costs to play appropriate competition. Third, women's teams lack the exposure the men's sport receives, which limits opportunities for young girls to be introduced to the sport outside of the Olympics every four years.

Question:

Many events are created to promote a cause. What kind of hockey event could you create to promote a cause encouraging girls to participate in sport? How could you construct an event to get more girls playing sport? How could you make this event unique?

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