The push for women's hockey's inclusion in the Olympic Games began in the 1930s by a group of Canadian athletes. It took more than half a century to finally arrive.
Women's hockey first sought inclusion in the Olympic Games in the 1930s. Had the sport broke that barrier, the near 80-year quest for professionalism in the sport may have been accelerated. Instead, it took women's hockey until 1998 to finally receive inclusion to the Olympic Games.
At the root of women's hockey's original push for inclusion in the Olympics were members of Canada's "Matchless Six." The Matchless Six were Canada's representatives at the 1928 Summer Olympics, which for the first time included women in the athletics competition. Canada's team included six women – Jean Thompson, Ethel Catherwood, Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith, Jane Bell and Myrtle Cook. Their team manager, Alexandrine Gibb was another fervent supporter of women's sport, and an athlete herself.
Two of those women, Bobbie Rosenfeld and Myrtle Cook were long time women's hockey players, and would spend much of their lives promoting women's hockey following those Olympics.
Bobbie Rosenfeld, who earned her nickname for her short hair, was a star in the 1920s and 1930s for the Toronto Ladies and Toronto Pats. She captained the Pats to the 1929 Ontario title, later beating Montreal's Northern Electric in what some called the national championship.
Gibb, who helped form "The Matchless Six," has been credited with helping form another famous group of Canadian athletes. In 1930, Gibb, while on vacation near Preston, Ontario, was approached by “a group of girls [who] came to ask me what I would advise them to do in order to get an athletic club on its way.”
That group turned out to be Hilda Ranscombe, Nellie Ranscombe, Heln Schmuck, and Marm Schmuck, who on Gibb's recommendation formed the Preston Rivulettes, widely considered one of the most dominant hockey teams in history. During their dominance throughout the 1930s, the Rivulettes became part of an Olympic women's hockey idea. The team planned to tour Europe to increase support for women's hockey as an Olympic sport.
The 1930s were a time when women's hockey boomed across Canada, and was growing internationally as well. It was a point Myrtle Cook and Alexandrine Gibb, who both became prominent sports writers at the time, used their columns to showcase.
Teams in Europe were already forming national teams with France and England playing the first international games between national teams in 1931.Fra
“With England, France, Russia and Germany developing women’s hockey it will not be long before Canada and USA will be stepping into an international tournament to decide who’s who in women’s world hockey. If they ever get it on the Olympic games as a demonstration event, that will be the start," Cook wrote in 1937.
That thought came on the heels of the announcement that women's speed skating would enter the 1932 Olympics as a demonstration sport, and later that women's alpine skiing would added to the 1936 Olympic offerings. But as Cook wrote, “They laughed off the suggestion now that women’s hockey will eventually be recognized on this Olympic card but wait and see!"
Cook immediately thought of sending the best team in the world overseas to showcase the calibre of players now competing in women's hockey.
“A trip to England prior to the opening of the 1935-1936 season with Rivulettes representing the Canadian side, would do a lot towards persuading the moguls in the European territory that the time is not distant when they can vote for women’s hockey in the Olympic program and not suffer at the gates,” Cook wrote in 1935.
“Women’s speed skating was on the Lake Placid program in 1932 as a demonstration event…if Preston Rivulettes are still tops in 1940 - they can lead the parade against any potential U.S. entries - England, France, and Germany will all have fine teams - it could be made a big thing with the proper push behind the guns…The prospect of an Olympic debut would be the right nectar for women’s hockey - the Canadian champions and Bessborough Cup winners of that year would have a nice juicy dessert at the end of the trail. More teams would be in the hunt - a real boom on," Cook penned in 1938.
Their push nearly proved successful as they rallied for women's hockey to enter the 1940 Olympics as a demonstration sport.
“The question of sending a women’s team to Europe this fall for a series of exhibition games will be discussed at a later meeting," Cook wrote. "A suggestion was heard that delegates express an opinion on the desirability of entering a team in the 1940 Olympic Games. A resolution tabled provides for an official request from the association to the International Olympic Committee to include women’s hockey as a demonstration event for the 1940 games.”
That moment however, would not come, nor would the 1940s Olympics, which were cancelled due to the arrival of World War II. Women's hockey was devastated by World War II, where "for women, the war delivered a near-knockout blow.”
Still, the impetus was in place; women would play hockey at the Olympic Games, although none of The Matchless Six would live long enough to see it.
The Revived Push For Women's Hockey At The Olympics
Men's hockey made its debut at the Olympic Games, first as a summer sport in 1920, then at the Winter Olympics in 1924. At the time of the first Winter Games in 1924, women were only permitted to compete in a single event, figure skating.
Following the failed efforts to see women's hockey included in the Olympics in the 1930s and 1940s, which met significant resistance from men in power, it took more than three decades for the conversation to again gain traction. In the 1970s, belief began to arise with the renewed popularity of women's hockey from the 1960s continuing to build, that Olympic women's hockey could arrive in time for the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.
“We were training for women’s hockey for the Olympics in 1980,” said Sylvia Wasylyk, a prominent American women's hockey player in the 1970s. “We were sure they [the International Olympic Committee] would vote it in, but they didn’t. I can’t understand it, they have women’s bobsledding, skiing and so on. Slowly but surely, things are improving. I might waste my whole life trying for the Olympics. I’ll probably retire the year they go with it.”
By the 1980s however, women's hockey's past promoters in Myrtle Cook and Alexandrine Gibb found a successor to the cause. That woman was Fran Rider. Rider first brought a group of international teams to Canada for a tournament in 1985.
President of the Ontario Women's Hockey Association since 1982, Rider saw the potential from athletes who attended that tournment from West Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, and immediately knew more was possible.
“We had a lot of meetings with Germany when they were here for that tournament,” Rider said in Ice In Their Veins: Women's Relentless Pursuit of the Puck. “I had wondered, for years, why are these players not in the Olympics? Why don’t we have a world championship? It just didn’t make sense because the caliber of play was so good. Perhaps I was naïve. I didn’t understand the extent of the roadblocks and walls. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have thought it was impossible. But I didn’t understand that. I thought, ‘It could be, so it should be.’ I immediately started working toward a world championship.”
Rider almost singlehandedly planned the 1987 World Women's Hockey Tournament, which served as the forerunner to the 1990 World Championships, with the ultimate goal of Olympic involvement. Along the way, Rider picked up allies, including USA Hockey's Walter Bush. Alongside Rider, Bush began advocacy for women's hockey at the Olympics.
“I wrote a letter to the IOC and suggested they put women’s hockey into the Olympics," Bush recalled. "I got a letter back, about four lines, that said, ‘Thank you for your inquiry, but you must understand that we already have women’s hockey in the Olympics in the Summer Games. It’s called field hockey.’"
From the 1990 World Championships, organizers sent video of the games to the International Olympic Committee. Their response was an accusation that they sped up the tapes, because the IOC did not believe women could play with as much speed and skill as what they were seeing.
Finally, in 1992, the IOC voted to include women's hockey at the Olympics, with the target of women first competing at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. The Olympic program however, had been finalized by that point, and Norwegian organizers said they did not have the necessary facilities to also host a women's hockey tournament. Instead, Japan agreed to host women's hockey in Nagano at the 1998 Olympics under one condition, that the host nation would be included in the tournament.
The United States ultimately shocked Canada at the those first Olympics winning gold, but it was the beginning of the most rapid growth in women's hockey the sport had ever seen. Today, 10 nations participate at the Olympics in women's hockey, and 46 nations are ranked in women's hockey by the IIHF.