The U-18 women's World Championship is now set to be held in Wisconsin from June 6-13.
The U-18 women's World Championship is now set to be held in Wisconsin from June 6-13.
The 2022 U-18 Women's World Champion was initially scheduled to take place in January in both Linkoping and Mjolby, Sweden, but was unfortunately canceled, much like the 2022 World Junior Championship, due to rising cases of COVID-19. The International Ice Hockey Federation announced this past weekend that the tournament would take place in the United States.
Canceling the U-18 Women's World Championship back in December was a crushing blow to women players, and hockey fans in general, everywhere.
The U-18 Women's World Championship is a seminal date on the hockey calendar, producing some of the most entertaining hockey of the year and introducing the public to the next wave of high-end talent. Canceling the event for a second straight year while, at the time, the U-20 Men's World Junior Championship chugged along unabated amid grand fanfare and massive COVID-19 cases that disrupted the tournament schedule and forced teams to forfeit games sent a disappointing message to the talented women who were set to compete at the top of their craft.
Thankfully, they will now be granted the same chance as their male counterparts to compete on the international stage. It took a long time to reach this outcome, but it appears as if the tournament will now proceed as expected.