Sledge Hockey
I’m sitting here watching Canada play Italy in Paralympic sledge hockey1 and it got me wondering how and when sledge hockey was created. So, thanks to the wonder of Wikipedia, I now know that:
- sledge hockey was created in the early 1960s by two men from Sweden who wanted to play hockey despite their physical disabilities
- Canada’s first sledge hockey team was established in 1982
- sledge hockey was first played as an official Paralympic event in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway
- women were allowed to play on the men’s sledge hockey teams for the first time at the 2010 at the Vancouver Paralympics, but none of the teams chose to have any women on their rosters
The sledge is made of a metal frame with two skate blades on the bottom.
The sticks look like half of a regular sized ice hockey stick with picks on the end that are used to propel the athlete across the ice.
The goalie’s glove also has picks on it to allow the goalie to move him- or herself across the ice. I couldn’t find a picture of a glove that I can use on my blog, but here are a couple of links to a photo so you can check it out.
Image Credit: Picture of an ice hockey sledge is from the Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain. The picture of the sledge hockey stick is also from the Wikimedia Commons and is also in the public domain.
- on TV, not live. I’ll be watching live sledge hockey on Wednesday night [↩]
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Tags: events, hockey, Paralympics, Paralympics 2010, sledge hockey, sports, Vancouver, Vancouver 2010, Winter Paralympics