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[h1]Jamaica’s Winter Olympic ice hockey dream bolstered by IIHF acceptance[/h1]By Sean Leahy | Puck Daddy – Fri, May 18, 2012 11:25 AM EDT
With the International Ice Hockey Federation calendar coming to a close, the IIHF held its Annual Congress in Helsinki ahead of this weekend's semifinals and title game of the 2012 World Championships.
During the Congress, Jamaica and Qatar, two countries which aren't known for anything close to cold weather, were accepted as the 71st and 72nd members of the IIHF. Aside from the usual superpowers of Canada, Russia, Sweden and the U.S., there are plenty of non-traditional hockey countries among the now 72 nations currently members.
According to the IIHF, Qatar becomes the third country from the Gulf region, joining United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. There are two rinks in Qatar and its hockey program was founded in 2010 and currently features a senior league with five teams and 70 players.
Despite having a single rink in the country and only 20 players, this is just the first step for Jamaica as it has bigger goals for the future in regards to its hockey program.
This past winter, the Jamaican Olympic Ice Hockey Federation was founded.
Yes, that's right, Jamaica has Olympic plans.
After becoming the story of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, later portrayed in the movie "Cool Runnings," Jamaica's goal is to participate in a future Winter Olympics. The original goal was to participate in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, but given the timetable, it was impossible, so all eyes are focusing now on the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
All jokes aside, this team has the potential to not be as bad as you may think...there are a lot of Caribbean-Canadiens who play the sport (even some who have played, or still play in the NHL). Going to be interesting to see the type of team they field in the next 6 years...
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