At last year’s inaugural event, Team USA went undefeated to win gold on its home ice. Canada claimed silver and Team World won bronze. The Women’s World Challenge tournament will return to Green Bay’s Cornerstone Community Centre, which was built in 2000 as an ice hockey and skating venue. The event will take place from August 31, 2023 to September 3, 2023 featuring Canada, Great Britain, USA, Team Europe and Team Asia. The ultimate goal is to expand female participation in Para ice hockey worldwide and one day add it to the Paralympic Winter Games programme. Together, Citi and PARA SPORT aim to help change the narrative around people with disabilities and provide Para athletes and their member organisations with a platform to drive social progress.
Monica Quimby, of the Tampa Bay area will be competing with her U.S. Women’s Sled Hockey teammates to defend the gold. Quimby plays defense and has been a member of the team since 2014 season. As a senior, Quimby shares her talents with guiding her younger teammates through systems and is an encouraging leader.
Sled hockey follows most of the typical ice hockey rules with the exception some of the equipment. Players sit in specially designed sleds that sit on top of two hockey skate blades. There are two sticks for each player, instead of one, and the sticks have metal picks on the butt end for players to propel themselves. Goalies wear basically the same equipment but do make modifications to the glove. Metal picks are sewn into the backside to allow the goalie to maneuver. Sled accessible rinks allow players to remain in their sleds and skate off the ice into the bench area. This requires that the bench area is flush with the ice and there is clear plexiglass replacing the white boards.
Sled hockey provides opportunities for many types of disabilities at the local level for recreation/competition, all the way to the National Sled Team that plays in World Championships and the Paralympics.