The Great Britain Womens Para Ice Hockey team have today announced their on-ice leadership team for the inaugural Womens World Championships, which are being held in Dolny Kubin, Slovakia.
All 3 of the on-ice leadrship team were a part of the GB team that took part in GB’s first tournament, the Women’s World Challenge in Green Bay in August 2022.
Stacey Quirk has been awarded the ‘C’, whilst her alternates will be Shannon Couch and Helen McGivern.
The inaugural Women’s Championships features USA, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Australia and Team World. Whilst USA and Canada are well established with over 20 years of experience each, Great Britain has only been together since October 2021. Norway and Australia are making their debut this year, with Australia’s team just a few months old. Team World features players from developing nations such as France, Slovakia, Czechia, Japan, Latvia, Sweden, Finland and Germany.
Female participation in Para ice hockey dates back to the sport’s Paralympic Winter Games debut at Lillehammer 1994, when Norway’s Britt Mjaasund Oeyen was part of the silver medallist team.
Since Vancouver 2010, Para ice hockey has been an open-gender sport, but it was not until PyeongChang 2018 that a second female athlete, Norway’s Lena Schroeder, competed at the Games. Schroeder will captain her national team at this year’s Women’s World Championships.
Yu Jing was part of China’s bronze medal squad at Beijing 2022, becoming the third – and to date last – female player to compete at the Winter Paralympics.
Since then, World Para Ice Hockey has launched a Women’s Development Pathway to bring more female athletes to ice. This initiative led to the creation of the Women’s World Challenge, a development tournament that paved the way to this year’s historic World Championships in Dolny Kubin.
In just three years, female representation in Para ice hockey rose from less than 1 percent to over 20 percent in the 2024-2025 season.
The growth in female participation has also had an impact on open-gender World Para Ice Hockey events. Several athletes competing in Dolny Kubin have previously represented their countries at A-Pool, B-Pool and C-Pool World Championships. Among them are Canada’s Raphaelle Tousignant, who played at the 2023 A-Pool Worlds in Moose Jaw, and Australia’s Rosa-Lee Principe, who competed at the 2024 C-Pool Worlds in Bangkok.
On Team Great Britain, Dani Czernuszka-Watts, Stacey Quirk, Leanne Emmerson and Nicole Jodi Hill were all part of the squad that won the C-Pool in Bangkok in 2022. Felicity Gregoy and Shannon Couch joined the team at the B-Pool World Championships in Kazakhstan two years later.