Sangeun Lee continues to grow women's hockey in Korea through The Dream League, which is set to double in size.
Sangeun Lee continues to grow women's hockey in Korea through The Dream League, which is set to double in size.
Sangeun Lee describes growing women’s ice hockey in Korea as her lifelong goal.
Following the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics, when Korea made its Olympic ice hockey debut on home soil, Lee developed an idea, which has since turned into The Dream League, an initiative so successful, that it’s doubling in size after just one year of operation. It comes at a time when women’s hockey in Korea appears to be on the rise, with the national team winning a historic World Championship gold medal this past April to earn promotion to Division IA.
“I started my journey as an athlete,” said Lee, who was a speed skater before switching to ice hockey. “I expected that it [hockey] would be inclusive. But the culture aspect of Korea, and also women’s hockey back then, wasn’t really inclusive at all. It really got me thinking about what I’m going to do with hockey. If I have a platform—how can I give back to the community? How can I make this community better?”
In 2021, Lee was selected to participate in the IOC Young Leaders program, which supports individuals in implementing initiatives designed to create change through sport. Lee spent the first year of this four year program researching and piloting her ideas before officially launching The Dream League in 2022.
The Dream League consists of what Lee calls four “pillars”. The first is the “Dreamlinkers”, the first women’s team in Korea to have an all-woman coaching staff.
“I was aware of the fact that because of gender inequality, it’s not just with the players, but also with the coaches,” said Lee. “Being with female coaches, training together with them, is it going to work? Of course it did.”
The team was also designed to address the population of women's players most lacking opportunities to play, those ages 12 to 24. As for how she found coaches, Lee made use of the connections she made in 2018 while working as a team host for the Olympic women’s ice hockey competition.
“Whoever plays hockey professionally in Korea, I know them,” said Lee. “I reached out to them during the ideation phase and we had a chance to really talk a lot about the design of the program itself, who should we include in this, and who is confident enough to step up and enjoy the opportunity.”
The actual league component of the initiative (pillar number two) was run over two weeks in the Fall. Held in collaboration with the Korea Ice Hockey Association, the league had 120 players, five referees, and five coaches, who were all women.
“We required at least two years of experience in ice hockey,” said Lee. The Dreamlinkers participated, along with Suwon City Hall Women’s Ice Hockey Team, the only professional women’s team in Korea. “We were kind of concerned about the level gap, but it was really okay. Yes there were some score gaps, but the players didn’t feel much difficulty in being able to enjoy the games. They actually preferred to have the [professional team] in the league because they were able to learn from it.”
The third pillar is a girls hockey camp, run with support from the PyeongChang 2018 Legacy Foundation at Gangneung Hockey Centre in PyeongChang. The inaugural camp incorporated on-ice and off-ice training, and through her IOC connection and her own experience feeling empowered by the Olympics, Lee delivered Olympic values education. It was also a low commitment, low pressure opportunity for women to give coaching a shot.
The final pillar isn’t a specific event, but rather an ongoing career development program.
“I’m really trying to create a community of other females in ice hockey,” said Lee. “Players, coaches, referees. We all get together, either offline or online, and have a natural conversation about how we’ve been doing and what we can do more of so that we can create our future together.”
While Lee thinks that a program like The Dream League should have been implemented in Korea years ago, she also believes that now is an opportune time to get her initiative off the ground.
“I’m really glad that the whole universal movement around empowering women’s hockey is happening at the same time that I am delivering this project,” said Lee, referencing the IIHF’s Inspire the Next campaign, which was launched earlier this year. She presented The Dream League at the inaugural IIHF Women’s Summit in Hungary this February, and believes that her model could be used in other nations as well.
Lee is now gearing up for the project’s second season, with the next league set to take place in the summer in Suwon. What’s especially impressive is that in just year two, the number of players and teams will double, with the league splitting into two divisions, one for experienced players and one for recreational players with less than two years experience.
“I’m also expecting to empower more coaches and referees. It will take some time, but eventually I want to really give them more confidence and give them the opportunity to really step up so that they can be a solid team member of this project,” said Lee. “Making this community bigger, giving leadership to every female in this sport, seeing that generational transition—we just won the championship, but what next?”
While she envisions being involved with The Dream League for a very long time, eventually Lee wants to be able to pass it on to the next leader to ensure longevity. A law student in London, she puts all her holiday time towards The Dream League, and despite having found funding and partners, has at times used her own pocket money to ensure the project is up and running. She sees the need for The Dream League to eventually be fully operated by the Korea Ice Hockey Association as well.
“I am aware that this will take some time, and there are political situations that have to be solved beforehand. Until that happens, I will still be responsible for the project as long as I can. The end goal of this project is creating the next leader who is going to take this initiative, even without me, so this initiative can be continued through the history of women’s hockey in Korea.”