The 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championships will be played in Alberta and will run from Aug. 20-31. IIHF officials announced the news on Wednesday. The tournament was slated for Nova Scotia, but was moved to Calgary after COVID concerns.
BREAKING NEWS: @HockeyCanada will host the #WomensWorlds in August in Calgary🇨🇦 Find out more: https://t.co/NiZLa3nooz
FR: Calgary sera l'hôte du #MondialFeminin en août : https://t.co/Kp2aaty86s pic.twitter.com/K03Rtmfa4B
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) June 2, 2021
2021 IIHF Women’s World Championships Set for Calgary
The tournament was originally canceled, but it was reversed with the event going to Calgary. Halifax and Truro, Nova Scotia was going to host the event from May 6-16, but local health officials raised concerns.
It’s the first time Calgary will host the event. The WinSport Arena will host games during the tournament. Players will start arriving for the tournament on Aug. 10 and quarantine before being cleared by health officials. Practices and pre-tournament activities will resume before the Aug. 20 start date. Tournament officials will release schedules at a later date.
What it Means
This is good news for women’s hockey as it will have a chance at a showcase event before the 2022 Winter Olympics. The 2021 tournament did not happen due to the global pandemic. It would have been terrible to see the event nixed for a second straight year. There was plenty of critcism when the tournament was cancelled and there not being a contingency plan.
It’s also good that Canada gets to host the event despite losing out on their original host location. One hopes that Nova Scotia can get another opportunity to host the event in the future. The 2020 event was slated to take place in Nova Scotia as well.
The United States is the defending champion after winning the last tournament in 2019 in Espoo, Finland. USA beat host Finald 2-1, in a shootout to win the gold medal. It was the ninth overall title for the Americans, but Canada has to most titles with 10. The two countries are the only ones that have won the tournament since its inception in 1990.
