Four years ago, Team France dealt with demotion at the women's World Championship. College hockey all-star Chloe Aurard is determined to avoid the same result.

Demoted in 2019, France has waited four years for their opportunity to return to the top division of the IIHF women’s World Championship. After being demoted four years ago, the IIHF cancelled back-to-back World Championship tournaments due to the global pandemic, keeping France relegated to Division 1A.

“It was definitely hard having to stop with Team France, especially with players competing everywhere,” said assistant captain Chloe Aurard of the pandemic’s interruption. “We kept contact, and the team culture we have, the family side of Team France, we kept it through phone and zoom meetings.”

In 2022, however, France outplayed the likes of Slovakia and Norway to earn promotion to the top division with a 3-0-1 record at the Division 1A tournament. France was paced by Aurard, 24, who was named the tournament’s top forward after scoring four goals and eight points in four games.

Aurard’s been a Hockey East all-star in each of her four seasons playing for Northeastern University, was named to the Hockey East all-rookie team and was the 2020 Beanpot MVP. Aurard knows the impact of leaving France to play in North America. It’s helped her game, which she’s now trying to bring back to her World Championship teammates.

“It definitely helped me improve my speed and ability to receive the puck and having to make a decision right away,” she said of the NCAA.

“I hadn’t had that pressure before. I was playing with boys (in France) and just getting hit. The speed of the game and the IQ, I had a way better structure than back home – the coaching, training staff, I took better care of my body during those years, and I think it’s all playing into my improvement as a player.”

Aurard’s accolades are long, but her biggest achievement would be keeping France in the top division of the World Championship. After earning a promotion in 2018, the team was demoted in 2019 before coming back for this tournament. Aurard, who was the top scorer for France in 2019, will need to carry her team to avoid a repeat situation.

“We’ve been playing games against Hungary a lot and Germany. For us, it would be huge to stay in this group – obviously a medal would be hard, but we want to prove that we deserve to be in this group, or making a quarterfinal would be very hopeful for the future of Team France.”

While Aurard remains France’s top player, there are others coming who could soon join the team’s top players, including Aurard, Clara Rozier, Athena Locatelli, Estelle Duvin and Lore Baudrit, who all play outside of France. While these top players are in leagues in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and North America, the future of France is being grown at home.

“We have a program run by our assistant coach in France – it’s where all the young players are starting to develop,” said Aurard. “They have a gym to lift and practise more often, and we see a lot of players going off to the USA and Canada, so it’s great to see that development. It’s going to improve us as a team, but the younger players now are better than my generation.”

France fell 14-1 in their opening game of the tournament to Finland, and despite outshooting Hungary, dropped the second match 4-2. France knew this would not be easy, said Aurard.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game against Finland, they’ve been in the top four forever,” Aurard said.

“We weren’t focused on the score, we were more focused on our systems and how we responded to goals,” she said.

And respond they must if France hopes to achieve their ultimate goal of avoiding relegation and earning the opportunity to play against the top talent in the world again next year.