The Player Leadership Seminar at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship brought together players from about 50 different countries.
photo: © International Ice Hockey Federation
Memorably, captain Hilary Knight led the U.S. to the gold medal at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship with a 4-3 overtime win over archrival Canada. However, that wasn’t the only important leadership moment that took place during the April tournament in Ceske Budejovice, Czechia.
Women’s hockey players from close to 50 nations gathered at a hotel in nearby Tabor from 17 to 20 April for an inspiring Player Leadership Seminar. IIHF Council Member Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer, who heads up the IIHF Women’s Committee, welcomed the delegates along with Adriaan Wijckmans from the IIHF Legal Department.
The program featured topics like “Beyond the Ice: Embodying the Leader You Are Meant to Be” (Yennie Rautenberg-Loya) and “Online Risk & Reward” (Georgia Relf, Signify). There were also panels that spotlighted the role of on-ice officials, including 2022 Olympic gold medal referee Anna Wiegand and IIHF Officiating Commitee member Vanessa Stratton, and the IIHF’s new online HER Coaching Network, with moderator Mel Davidson – the architect of Canadian Olympic gold in 2006 and 2010 – and Frolunda head coach Erika Holst.
Women’s hockey players from close to 50 nations gathered at a hotel in nearby Tabor from 17 to 20 April for an inspiring Player Leadership Seminar. IIHF Council Member Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer, who heads up the IIHF Women’s Committee, welcomed the delegates along with Adriaan Wijckmans from the IIHF Legal Department.
The program featured topics like “Beyond the Ice: Embodying the Leader You Are Meant to Be” (Yennie Rautenberg-Loya) and “Online Risk & Reward” (Georgia Relf, Signify). There were also panels that spotlighted the role of on-ice officials, including 2022 Olympic gold medal referee Anna Wiegand and IIHF Officiating Commitee member Vanessa Stratton, and the IIHF’s new online HER Coaching Network, with moderator Mel Davidson – the architect of Canadian Olympic gold in 2006 and 2010 – and Frolunda head coach Erika Holst.
Asked to describe the reaction when players mainly from up-and-coming women’s hockey countries were invited to attend the seminar, IIHF Women’s Program Manager Blanka Elekes Szentagotai said: “Absolutely excited. Exhilarated! They just want to grow their own connections, make friends and hopefully grow hockey in their countries. They’re captain or assistant captains on their national teams. They’re true leaders already at this young age of their programs. They just want to contribute and then grow women’s hockey bigger globally.”
Case in point: Majda Hanic, the captain of the national women’s hockey team of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The 28-year-old blueliner has suited up in IIHF competition since this former Yugoslavian state debuted in Division III in 2022. For Hanic’s squad – currently sitting 43rd in the IIHF World Rankings – good leadership is indispensable. Bosnia and Herzegovina has just one women’s club, which competes against boys in the national league.
“For me, leadership means support, dedication, motivation, teamwork, and inspiration also for others,” said Hanic, who began playing hockey at age 14 with her brothers. “I do believe that real leaders are actually supporting new generations to continue playing hockey. It’s supporting them to be better players and better persons. We are here to motivate them to stay in the hockey community and to spread the word about ice hockey – in my case, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because we are a very small country with very small ice hockey community. So I think this is very important for us.”
Case in point: Majda Hanic, the captain of the national women’s hockey team of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The 28-year-old blueliner has suited up in IIHF competition since this former Yugoslavian state debuted in Division III in 2022. For Hanic’s squad – currently sitting 43rd in the IIHF World Rankings – good leadership is indispensable. Bosnia and Herzegovina has just one women’s club, which competes against boys in the national league.
“For me, leadership means support, dedication, motivation, teamwork, and inspiration also for others,” said Hanic, who began playing hockey at age 14 with her brothers. “I do believe that real leaders are actually supporting new generations to continue playing hockey. It’s supporting them to be better players and better persons. We are here to motivate them to stay in the hockey community and to spread the word about ice hockey – in my case, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because we are a very small country with very small ice hockey community. So I think this is very important for us.”
In November last year, Argentina triumphed in the inaugural IIHF Women’s 3x3 Series in Sao Paulo, Brazil. But as captain Iara Haiek acknowledges, the South American country has a long way to go with just 351 registered female players. The 23-year-old from Buenos Aires has strong male role models. Her father Jorge is the president of the national federation, and he and her brother Owen serve on the national team coaching staff. But coming to Czechia was an important chance to connect with more insightful, impactful women in our sport.
“We're starting to build the team and starting to have a really good foundation,” said Haiek. “We've been kind of making a community of women and girls play ice hockey, and we're starting to get recognized as ice hockey players. I think what we need is more ice, because we don’t really have ice hockey rinks to play in [there are just two indoor rinks Argentina-wide]. So I guess that’s our next step. We’re doing everything that we can with the little ice that we have.”
Similarly, Dosa Alkindi, the captain of the women’s national team of Oman, knows about stepping up to fight for hockey dreams in the face of adversity. The Middle Eastern nation of 5.2 million first participated in the IIHF’s World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend in 2021, which was a challenging time for the international hockey community and the world due to the pandemic. Today, with just 39 registered female players in Oman, strong leadership is needed to nurture new talent.
“I started to skate when I was 12 years old, and then we were fighting to get a girls’ hockey team,” recalled Alkindi. “It was so hard. After seven years – we finally started up before [the] Covid [pandemic], and then Covid started and everything shut down. So after Covid, in 2021 we started our club, and we were established [properly] in 2023.”
Looking to the future, it will take a combination of great player leadership, great coaching, and greatly enhanced access to training, facilities, and other resources for these countries to reach the next level. Players always appreciate homegrown talent – 18-year-old New Zealand prospect Sophie Sam, for instance, cites fellow Kiwi defender Rebecca Lilly, 26, as a “real inspiration.”
Down the road, we may discover that a future peer of Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin, or Jenni Hiirikoski was on hand for this year’s Player Leadership Seminar. Fingers crossed!
“We're starting to build the team and starting to have a really good foundation,” said Haiek. “We've been kind of making a community of women and girls play ice hockey, and we're starting to get recognized as ice hockey players. I think what we need is more ice, because we don’t really have ice hockey rinks to play in [there are just two indoor rinks Argentina-wide]. So I guess that’s our next step. We’re doing everything that we can with the little ice that we have.”
Similarly, Dosa Alkindi, the captain of the women’s national team of Oman, knows about stepping up to fight for hockey dreams in the face of adversity. The Middle Eastern nation of 5.2 million first participated in the IIHF’s World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend in 2021, which was a challenging time for the international hockey community and the world due to the pandemic. Today, with just 39 registered female players in Oman, strong leadership is needed to nurture new talent.
“I started to skate when I was 12 years old, and then we were fighting to get a girls’ hockey team,” recalled Alkindi. “It was so hard. After seven years – we finally started up before [the] Covid [pandemic], and then Covid started and everything shut down. So after Covid, in 2021 we started our club, and we were established [properly] in 2023.”
Looking to the future, it will take a combination of great player leadership, great coaching, and greatly enhanced access to training, facilities, and other resources for these countries to reach the next level. Players always appreciate homegrown talent – 18-year-old New Zealand prospect Sophie Sam, for instance, cites fellow Kiwi defender Rebecca Lilly, 26, as a “real inspiration.”
Down the road, we may discover that a future peer of Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin, or Jenni Hiirikoski was on hand for this year’s Player Leadership Seminar. Fingers crossed!