Since women's hockey entered the Olympic games in 1998, Canada and Team USA have dominated the sport. Although Sweden managed to capture silver at the 2006 games in Torino, so far the Vancouver games have proved what most already knew. It's Canada and Team USA and then everybody else.
Lack Of Competiton
The women's hockey programs in countries like Sweden and Finland and even China have improved with leaps and bounds over the past few years, but their talent just doesn't stack up to that of the North American teams. In the 2010 games so far, Canada and USA have combined to outscore their opponents by a whopping 66-3 margin, and it's still the round robin. But games between other countries are refreshingly close, and provides a little more entertainment than watching Canada play a glorified scrimmage. Should women's hockey even be at the Olympics? While some may be on the fence, the answer should be absolutely yes. The sport has been growing throughout the years, and young girls who previously may have given up on the game they love, are inspired by women competing at the Olympic games. There is a lot of effort to grow the game all over the world, because no one enjoys watching such lopsided scores and little to no competition. But there is definitely a rivalry that every women's hockey fan loves to watch, and wouldn't change for anything. Canada and Team USA.
Intense Cross Border Rivalry
The growing rivalry between Canada and the USA is certainly the best part about the sport. They genuinely hate each other, prompting some to suggest adding body checking to the game just to spice things up. Canada has captured gold at the past two Olympic games and the USA has bested Canada at recent world hockey championships. The women's hockey programs in North America has never been better, as the talent on these two teams is overflowing. So much so, that the women of Team Canada recently faced off against a midget boys team, and won. In fact, both Canada and Team USA frequently play boys teams because they provide the best competition. But in these Olympics, hockey fans are holding their breath as they await the result of this tournament to see if Canada will meet Team USA for the gold medal. It would take a monumental collapse by either team to not produce an all North American final. While this is the Olympics, and anything can happen, it's safe to say that unless another country has some extreme magic up their sleeve, the world will be watching one of the best rivalries in sports face off for Olympic gold.
Marcia Di Michele - In addition to Suite101, Marcy is also a writer for TheHockeyWriters.com and blogs for Sports Illustrated's Fannation page. Marcy has been ...
Join the Conversation