Olympic Alphabet : I is for ...

ICE

First of all, this is something of a special anniversary, because it was exactly 40 years ago today at the Innsbruck Winter Olympics (another “I” for today’s alphabet) that John Curry became the first openly lgbt Olympic champion (although, technically, he wasn’t openly gay till the morning afterwards).

Back to today’s actual “I” – ICE. The third largest group of lgbt Winter Olympians comes in ice hockey (the second largest is speed skaters, also an ICE group). To date there have been 9 identified ice hockey players and all of them are female. To compliment my article on the all-male lgbt Olympic figure skaters I’ll concentrate on the all-female group of ice hockey players.

This group can be considered as one of the most successful of all lgbt Olympians, summer or winter, with a high percentage of them winning medals than in any other group of athletes (I consider more than 2 athletes to constitute a “group”). You’ll see what I mean as you read through this article.

Below is a table showing all of the lgbt ice hockey players shown in chronological order and the position or medal they won at each. 

		1998	2002	2006	2010	2014
Canada	Nancy Drolet	S
Canada	Jayna Hefford	S	G	G	G	G
Sweden	Erika Holst	5	B	S	4
Sweden	Ylva Lindberg	5	B	S
USA	Caitlin Cahow			B	S
USA	Kathleen Kauth			B
Canada	Charline Labonté			G	G	G
Canada	Sarah Vaillancourt			G	G
Sweden	Emilia Andersson Ramboldt				4	4

Women’s ice hockey was introduced into the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. Because the decision to include the women’s tournament had come well into the run-up period to the Nagano games the organising committee didn’t have time to organise it, appoint official and build venues in time. The IOC agreed to limit the tournament to 6 national teams – Canada, USA, Finland, Sweden, China and hosts Japan.

As you can see in the table above there has been at least 3 lgbt ice hockey players at all of the tournaments that the Olympics have held. Very few other sports that have appeared in more than one consecutive games, summer or winter, can display the same 100 percent attendance by lgbt athletes in that sport's entire Olympic history. What is unique to ice hockey, however, is the fact that at every tournament there has been at least 1 lgbt medal winner.

Canada had been world champions since that tournament began in 1990 and were the favourites to win the inaugural Olympic gold medal. As it happened they were beaten into silver position by their eternal rivals the USA.

Playing in forward position for Canada was Jayna Hefford. In her career she has won 7 world championship gold medals and 7 silver medals. Her Olympic career contains yet more unique lgbt records. Jayna is the only lgbt athlete, summer or winter, to compete in all tournaments that her sport has been held at the Olympics, and also the only lgbt athlete to win medals at all of them. Having retired in 2013 Jayna’s record will not be carried on to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Jayna is also the only lgbt athlete to win 4 consecutive gold medals, in effect being an Olympic champion for a complete 16 year period. Until topped by speed skater Ireen Wüst at the Sochi 2014 games Jayna won more Winter gold medals than any other lgbt athlete, and ranks equal second with Wüst and Greg Louganis behind Ian Thorpe in total gold medals. It’s all very impressive and confusing at the same time.

In the Salt Lake City 2002 games Canada beat champions USA to the gold medal, and Sweden beat Finland to the bronze medal.

The Turin 2006 games had the most lgbt ice hockey players. None of them were openly lgbt at the time, though both of the Swedish players, Erika Holst and Ylva Lindberg, came out the following May. As you can see in the above table all of the players won a medal in Turin. Again, that’s another unique record. No other group of athletes (more than 2) in any other sport has achieved a 100 percent medal podium position. On a negative record-breaking point, the USA team lost to someone other than Canada for the first.

On home soil at the Vancouver 2010 games Canada held on to their title. Because of the world success of both the Canadian and USA teams there was some criticism that the rest of the world was being forced to compete on an uneven field. The IOC recognised this but stated that women’s ice hockey was still undergoing development as a world-class sport and that, given time, other nations could increase in experience and skill to rival Canada and the USA.

Sochi 2014 brought the issue of lgbt discrimination to the forefront of the Olympics. Many people called for a boycott of the games because of Russia’s anti-gay legislation. However, Russia has not been the only host nation with lgbt discrimination in its constitution, and teams have been more than happy to compete in those nations.

Three months before the Sochi games American ice hockey player Caitlin Cahow came out in response to Russia’s anti-gay legislation. She was one of several athletes who expressed an anti-boycott stand. She gave the example of Jesse Owens at the Berlin 1936 Olympics. How far, if at all, would the rights of black athletes have progressed if he had boycotted Berlin?

Other than Jayna Hefford there has only been one other lgbt person involved in the first and most recent ice hockey tournament. That person is coach Shannon Miller, considered to be the most successful women’s ice hockey coach of all time. In 1998 she was the national coach for Canada’s silver medal winners. In 2011 Shannon became a coaching mentor to the Russian women’s ice hockey team preparing for Sochi 2014. Unfortunately, Shannon has experienced discrimination – not Russia or by Russian, but by the American university team, the Minnesota-Duluth Dulldogs. In 2015 she and two other female sports coaches began legal actions against the university for discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity.

As we wait for the next full Olympic Winter games I look forward to the Youth Winter Olympics which begin tonight and wonder if any of the young athletes will come out and go on to compete in Pyeong Chang in 2018.