Youth Olympics

Shootmaster_44

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Sep 10, 2005
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I noticed this on the IIHF's webpage. Apparently, next winter in Austria there will be a Winter Youth Olympics and it will include boys and girls hockey. The blurb on the IIHF's site says that the boys competition will be players born in 1996 and the girls will be players born in 1994. This makes the boys 15/16 and the girls 17/18.

So I assume this means for the girls they will send the national Under-18 team to this. But for the boys, this does make for an interesting competition as Canada at least does not have a national Under-16 team. I wonder how they will pick the teams for this?

Apparently the format will be 5 boys and 5 girls teams picked from a combined ranking of the Men's and Women's rankings after the Worlds in May. Austria will have a team in each tournament. So I wonder how the teams will be picked. Will they pick the best Under-18 girls teams and then the next 4 countries are the boys? On the other hand will they pick the top 4 countries from the rankings and that's that? I just wonder how they will weight the men's tournaments and the women's. I hope they do it straight up and not weight one more heavily than the other. Using the existing rankings, the boys side would be:

Russia
Canada
Sweden
Finland
Austria (currently #14 in the World)

The girls would be:
Canada
US
Finland
Sweden
Austria (currently #16 in the World)

At any rate, I understand why Austria gets in, but I can't see them doing very well. What are the minor hockey leagues like in Europe? Will Canada (and the US if they qualify) do better in boys simply because it seems that our developmental system is more organized? I remember reading something years ago that says that in North America kids start playing hockey at Age 4 and 5, whereas in Europe it is closer to 8 or 9. I guess the World U17s that they hold every year aren't huge blow outs by Canada's provincial teams. But knock a couple years off and I wonder.

It also appears that there will be an individual skills competition for the top 15 players (one per country) from both the boys and the girls. These top 15 players will be picked from countries that are not in the tournament. So an educated guess means we will possibly see North Koreans or Hungarians in this competition.

Anyone know much more than this about the tournament?
 

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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These tournaments have been held for a long time, but they don't get much media attention. Not sure if they have all the best players playing either.

Also don't hold the World U-17 Challenge in too high regard, it's not an IIHF tournament, not all the best teams participate each year nor will the best (European) players either.
 

jaana

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Jan 25, 2009
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These tournaments have been held for a long time, but they don't get much media attention.
This will be the first ever Youth Winter Olympics, actually.

It is indeed interesting how they will pick the teams, because for the 2010 Youth Summer Olympics' football tournament they picked the nations that are very very far from being the best in the world (Montenegro, Vanuatu, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Bolivia for boys), while in basketball there were more traditionally good nations involved (although the comp was actually more streetball, than basketball).
But, of course, there aren't as many hockey nations to choose from as you have in football or asketball.
 

Shootmaster_44

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Sep 10, 2005
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This will be the first ever Youth Winter Olympics, actually.

It is indeed interesting how they will pick the teams, because for the 2010 Youth Summer Olympics' football tournament they picked the nations that are very very far from being the best in the world (Montenegro, Vanuatu, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Bolivia for boys), while in basketball there were more traditionally good nations involved (although the comp was actually more streetball, than basketball).
But, of course, there aren't as many hockey nations to choose from as you have in football or asketball.

Yeah the basketball was an interesting format. Didn't see any games, so I can't say whether or not it was a good thing. But, I am glad that they didn't tinker with hockey and make it 3 on 3 or some weird roller hockey type rules.

I am curious about what the format will be for the skills competition though? Will it resemble the NHL Skills Competition where? Plus will it resemble Gymnastics where each event has medalists plus the overall competition?
 

Shootmaster_44

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Sep 10, 2005
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These tournaments have been held for a long time, but they don't get much media attention. Not sure if they have all the best players playing either.

Also don't hold the World U-17 Challenge in too high regard, it's not an IIHF tournament, not all the best teams participate each year nor will the best (European) players either.

I don't really. But the European teams don't get blown out either, so they send competitive teams to the tournament. But the best players don't always compete for Canada either. Occasionally, the best 16 year old will play at the World Juniors instead of the U17s.

At any rate, shave a couple years off and that will be this tournament. So will the European nations be as good as their older teams are?
 

slovakiasnextone

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Jul 7, 2008
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Youth Olympiad, Youth Olympics, makes no difference to me. ;)

I think you might be mistaking the Youth Olympics with the European Youth Olympic Festival, which is played in February every two years and also has an U17 men´shockey team tournament? I think this year it´s actually taking place in Liberec, Czech republic.

To the OP are you sure about the number of teams? In this article it´s said that 8 teams from the IIHF men´s/women´s ranking will get to play. It´s said by a Slovak who actually works with the IIHF just after the women´s hockey conference in Zurich.

Also, while the age in which kids start playing hockey differs over here (just as I´m sure it differs in Canada), most kids start playing at around 6 years over here as well, and 9 year olds starting with hockey, especially those that end up with a very good career are more of an rarity.
 

Shootmaster_44

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Sep 10, 2005
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To the OP are you sure about the number of teams? In this article it´s said that 8 teams from the IIHF men´s/women´s ranking will get to play. It´s said by a Slovak who actually works with the IIHF just after the women´s hockey conference in Zurich.

Also, while the age in which kids start playing hockey differs over here (just as I´m sure it differs in Canada), most kids start playing at around 6 years over here as well, and 9 year olds starting with hockey, especially those that end up with a very good career are more of an rarity.

According to the IIHF (http://http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/championships/youth-olympics.html), it appears that I missed the different in the article. Plus they will have 10 teams playing (5 boys and 5 girls). So Top 8 plus Austria. I just wonder what the structure of this combined rankings will be?

Since the Men's side is stronger, I anticipate that Canada and the US will be playing in the girls' tournament. However, I imagine that things are closer at U18 level for girls than there is at the Senior Women's level.

I hope that TSN/CTV does cover Canada's games in it's entirety. I'd be interested in watching.

Edit: I do wonder if this tournament will cause Hockey Canada to create a deeper development program. What I mean is whether they will bump back the Canada Games to say a U14 tournament and use that as the "tryouts" for the U16 Youth Olympic team?

Also, I wonder if this will change the format for the World U17 Hockey Challenge? Seems strange to have a U16 National team and revert to regional teams at the U17 level.

Edit2: Apparently I need to read better. It appears that this won't be a U18 girls and a U16 boys tournament. It will be a 1996 (so 15/16) boys tournament and a 1994 (17/18) girls tournament. I don't imagine many female U18 teams feature too many non-1994s. But those would be excluded from the tournament.
 
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