Korea women's national ice hockey team
 | |
| General manager | Lee Ji-yoon |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Sarah Murray |
| Assistants | Rebecca Baker Kim Do-yun Pak Chol-ho |
| Captain | Park Jong-ah |
| Team colors | |
| IIHF code | N/A |
| Ranking | |
| Current IIHF | Unranked |
| First international | |
 Sweden 3–1 Korea  (Incheon, South Korea; 5 February 2018) | |
| Biggest win | |
| None | |
| Biggest defeat | |
 Switzerland 8–0 Korea (Gangneung, South Korea; 10 February 2018) Sweden 8–0 Korea (Gangneung, South Korea; 12 February 2018) | |
| Olympics | |
| Appearances | 1 (first in 2018) |
| International record (W–L–T) | |
| 0–5–0 | |
The Korea women's national ice hockey team is a representative side which is composed of players from both South Korea and North Korea.
The team competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics, competing as "Korea" under the IOC country code "COR".
History
In 2014, it was confirmed that South Korea women's national ice hockey team had qualified to participate at the 2018 Winter Olympics as part of the host country. Their participation at the 2018 Winter Olympics had been their second appearance following their debut in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.[1]
South Korea had proposed a unified team of the two Koreas at the Games. It was proposed that the team would participate at least in the women's ice hockey event and possibly more disciplines.[2] The proposal came after North Korea competed in the Group A tournament of IIHF Women's World Championship Division II which was hosted in South Korea on April 2017.[3] North Korea initially refused the proposal in June 2017 on the grounds of time constraints.[4][5] However, an agreement was made with four weeks left before the Games commenced.[3]
On 20 January 2018, the International Olympic Committee allowed a Unified Korean team to compete in the women's ice hockey event for the 2018 Winter Olympics[6] under the "Olympic Korean Peninsula Declaration", allowing the team to compete as "Korea", using the acronym "COR".[7] On 30 January 2018, the full roster of the unified Korean team was named.[3]
The language difference of Korean spoken by players from South and North Korea became a challenge for the team during training. South and North Korea also use different terminology in ice hockey and head coach Sarah Murray does not speak Korean and has to rely her assistant and manager to communicate to the team's players.[8]
The unified team played their first friendly match against Sweden on 4 February 2018 at the Seonhak International Ice Rink in Incheon before an audience of 3,000 people ahead of the Winter Olympics.[9] They lost 1–3 to their European opposition.[10] The Koreans scored their only goal during the first period. Four of the 22 players in the roster for that game were North Koreans.[11]
Team image
The anthem which plays when the Korea team plays in international ice hockey is the folk song Arirang instead of the national anthems of either South Korea or North Korea. The team's uniform features the silhouette of the Korean peninsula with the text "Korea".[10]
There was some opposition to the formation of the team. Critics of the unified team believe that the team has less chance to win a medal compared to a team solely composed of South Koreans.[12]
Olympic Games record
- 2018 – Finished in 8th place
Fixtures and results
Exhibition games
| 4 February 2018 | Korea | 1–3 (1–3, 0–0, 0–0) | Sweden | Seonhak International Ice Rink, Incheon Attendance: 3,000 |
| Game reference | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shin So-jung | Goalies | |||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
2018 Winter Olympics
- Preliminary round – Group B
Template:2018 Winter Olympics women's ice hockey group B standings
Template:2018 Winter Olympics women's ice hockey game B2
Template:2018 Winter Olympics women's ice hockey game B4
Template:2018 Winter Olympics women's ice hockey game B6
- 5–8th place semifinal
Template:2018 Winter Olympics women's ice hockey game D1
- Seventh place game
Template:2018 Winter Olympics women's ice hockey game E1
Team
Current roster
The squad has a total of 35 players, more than other competing national teams at the Games although the IOC has mandated that only 22 players can play in each match "with respect to fair play" and that the coach must select at least three North Koreans to form the squad in each game.[7]
Template:2018 Winter Olympics Korea women's ice hockey team roster
All-time record against other nations
Last match update: 20 February 2018
| Team | GP | W | T | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Japan |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Sweden |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 17 |
| Switzerland |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
See also
References
- ^ Steiss, Adam (19 September 2014). "Korea headed to the Olympics: National teams granted entry to PyeongChang 2018". IIHF. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ "N. Korean IOC member keeps mum on Olympic co-hosting with S. Korea". Yonhap News Agency. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
- ^ a b c Merk, Martin (30 January 2018). "Unified Korean Team". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ "N Korea refuses South's Olympic offer". BBC News. 26 June 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ Payne, Marissa (30 September 2017). "PyeongChang Olympic organizers happy to see first North Koreans qualify for 2018 Games". Washington Post. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ Kim, Chang-keum (22 January 2018). "IOC announces decision to allow unified Korean hockey team". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ a b "Unified Korean Olympic Team to march at Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018". International Olympic Committee. 20 January 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ Siles, Matt (2 February 2018). "Koreas' unified women's hockey team has exposed a key difference between South and North — their language". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ Myers, Paul (4 February 2018). "Korea's united ice hockey team loses warm-up match against Sweden". RFI. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ a b Watson, Ivan; Ko, Stella; McKenzie, Sheena (5 February 2018). "Joint Korean ice hockey team plays for first time ahead of Olympics". CNN. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ Choi, Won-suk (5 February 2018). "Joint Korea ice-hockey team plays their first game". The Korea Times. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ "Winter Olympics: Joint Korean team loses first practice match". BBC News. 4 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
