With the Paralympics coming up soon, there are a lot of advertisments on the TV featuring Ice sledge hockey. I could be the only person interested in how it started but thought it could help people understand the sport.
It was invented in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1960's by Swedish wheelchair athletes who still wanted to be able to play ice hockey. The game was initially quite successful, with a few years of development there were around five teams that competed in the Stockholm city championships. Eventually as with most good
ideas this idea ventured to Norway, soon followed by regular matches between the two national teams.Then further down the road it was introduced to British wheelchair athletes so it had made it's way around Europe.
Rolf Johansson was a Paralympic gold medallist in wheelchair track and field and also once of the inventors of ice sledge hockey.
What he did for the sport was he gave Dick Loiselle a sledge which he took from Europe in 1979; Loiselle was a former director of the Toronto Olympiad. The sledge was given with the understanding that Paraplegic Association of Canada would begin a program for sledge hockey, Unfortunately the PAC declined the initial proposal. It was then offered to Jerry Johnston the executive director of Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing, they also declined the offer to get the sport off the ground in Canada.
After it was declined by CADS the sledge was sent to Jean Lane who presented a proposal to the city of Medicine Hat, Alberta (the home of Stefan Meyer) which had allocated $42,000 for persons with disabilities in sports. As there was no program currently being funded - and it met all the guidelines for one - sledge hockey was finally introduced into Canada thanks to this funding. The sport then grew very quickly throughout Canada, leading to the creation of the Sledge Hockey of Canada (SHOC) which was created in 1993. This was swiftly followed by it being given the title of a national sports federation by the Canadian Government. This was done to help develop, coordinate and promote the sport of sledge hockey in Canada.
By 1994 sledge ice hockey had finally made it to the Paralympics but this was in the catagory of a demonstration sport. Eventually it moved on to become a full medal event at the winter games. That is essentially how ice sledge hockey made it's way to the Paralympics.
The rules for the sport are pretty much the same as traditional hockey (any differences are those necessitated by the ice sledge and the athlete), but there are some different toys they get to use on the ice. The set up to the rink is slightly different to normal as in the bench and penalty bench are built flush so that a player can get in an out of their own accord with out the help of an able bodied person or a coach.
The benches are also made of smooth plastic or ice so a player can sit on the sledge in the bench area, this also prevents any damage to the sledge. The players equipment must meet the standards set by the HECC (Hockey Equipment Certification Council Inc) this means any protective gear, the sledges, helmets and the sticks.
The sticks used are curved at one end like traditional hockey sticks, the one major difference is that they have six to eight metal teeth at the opposite end. This is to aide in manoeuvring and propulsion. The way the players move on the ice is to use these metal teeth to grip into the ice and propel themselves around the
ice in this way. The trick with these teeth is that they cannot be to pointy to avoid damaging the ice and cannot protrude further out than 1 cm so they cannot hurt other players.
That should be all you need to know about ice sledge hockey. Now go forth and watch this awesome sport on the Paralympics. Trust me, I watched a match on YouTube. There is nothing more magical than watching grown men sledge on ice and spin full circles. It is truly amazing and I think it deserves more build up these guys must have tremendous body strength to do this sport. It's like murderball on ice and deserves a watch and your support.
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