Women’s Hockey Looks for Boost From 2002 Games

While their soccer-playing sisters prepare for the debut next week of the Women’s United Soccer Assn., elite female hockey players have been competing before crowds of dozens this week in Minnesota at the women’s world championships, wondering if they will ever have a chance to pursue their sport as a livelihood and not merely a passion.

There is no guarantee the WUSA will survive in a sports landscape crowded with professional leagues. But a solid foundation was laid when the U.S. women’s team won the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and struck a chord with a generation of women--and their male relatives--who considered athletic competition a normal part of their lives.

Clever marketing and the success of the 1999 Women’s World Cup tournament made Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy marketable and transformed the idea of a women’s professional league from fantasy to reality.

The U.S. hockey team didn’t reap the same benefits after it won the first women’s Olympic hockey gold medal at Nagano in 1998. After its 15 minutes of fame, the team played no home games for a year. Talk of a women’s professional hockey league never advanced beyond the dreaming stage.

“Most of us on our team would love to see a professional women’s hockey league, so we can partake in developing the sport,” said A.J. Mleczko, a member of the Nagano team and an alternate captain of Team USA at the world championships. “It will be interesting to see how the soccer league does. I think after 2002, when the Olympics will be here in the U.S., our talent pool will grow. It has grown here, but in the rest of the world, the talent pool is a little bit smaller.

“Hopefully in five years or 10 years, there will be enough of a talent pool and enough interest from the public for a women’s professional hockey league.”

Mleczko, who completed her Harvard career after the Nagano Games, realizes winning Olympic gold was a step forward but hardly the final step in popularizing women’s hockey.

“There are very different situations between the soccer team and our team,” she said. “Their World Cup and Olympic Games were in the U.S., and people were able to be there in person and support them. And soccer is much more widespread. You need a field and a ball and can play in all different elements. Women’s hockey, up to this point, has been concentrated in the East and Midwest, and it’s just starting to grow in other places, like California.”

The U.S. defeated Russia, 6-1, Saturday in the semifinals of the world competition in Minneapolis and today will face Canada, which defeated Finland, 8-0, in the other semifinal.

Canada defeated the U.S. to win the previous six world titles, and the two countries have a significant edge on their rivals in talent and depth.

“Russia hasn’t had a strong history of women’s hockey, but they’ve got some amazing resources,” Mleczko said. “There are a lot of other teams out there that are getting better. Whether they can improve by 2002, I don’t know. By ‘06, it won’t be just the U.S. and Canada. . . .

“If we go into these Olympics and win gold in our own country, hopefully that will create some interest and support for our sport, certainly at the grass-roots level, and get more young girls playing our sport.”

OLYMPIAN TASKS

When Wayne Gretzky isn’t overseeing the operations of the underachieving Phoenix Coyotes, the franchise he and Steve Ellman bought but couldn’t guide into the NHL playoffs, he’s busy bearing the expectations of a nation.

As executive director of Team Canada for the Salt Lake City Games, Gretzky is trying to do what he couldn’t do as a player, and what no Canadian team has done since 1952: Win an Olympic gold medal.

Because everyone in Canada is a coach, Gretzky will be second-guessed no matter what he does, an unusual position for him. But he’s sure he and his management team, General Manager Kevin Lowe, Coach Pat Quinn and assistants Jacques Martin and Ken Hitchcock, have the experience and knowledge to build a gritty, determined team.

“I don’t think there’s any person who would run Team Canada who wouldn’t be open to criticism,” he said. “That’s a compliment to our game and the players we produce.

“Once you get past the first line and get to the 16th through 23rd guys, there are so many different ways you can go. You have to make your decision on what you believe is right.”

Canada’s first picks were defensemen Rob Blake of Colorado, Scott Niedermayer of New Jersey and Chris Pronger of St. Louis, and forwards Paul Kariya of the Mighty Ducks, Mario Lemieux of Pittsburgh, Owen Nolan of San Jose, Joe Sakic of Colorado and Steve Yzerman of Detroit. The mix has veterans, creativity, and some of the perseverance Canadians like to think is unique to players bred north of the border.

“When we were done picking them, we realized afterward seven of the eight, counting Mario, were captains of their teams,” Gretzky said. “So we felt very good thinking about the talent, and very happy with the character.”

Gretzky also said Coyote goalie Sean Burke is a candidate for a spot, although it is believed Patrick Roy, Curtis Joseph and Martin Brodeur are the primary candidates.

“We have five names we’re thinking of, and he’s one,” Gretzky said of Burke. “He’s earned his stripes. It’s great to see a guy like him step forward.”

WHEN DOES THE ICE MELT?

Like every other major sport, figure skating no longer has an off-season.

An array of U.S. world team members will compete in the Great American Figure Skating Challenge on Tuesday at Binghamton, N.Y., and the event will be taped for televising May 13.

The format calls for skaters to compete as teams. Four-time world champion Michelle Kwan will be teamed with Matt Savoie, the bronze medalist at the U.S. championships, the Four Continents event and the Grand Prix Final. U.S. silver medalist and world bronze medalist Sarah Hughes will be paired with two-time world bronze medalist Michael Weiss. Todd Eldredge, a surprise bronze medalist at the world championships last month, will be teamed with Angela Nikodinov of San Pedro, who was third in the U.S. event and fifth in the world, and U.S. champion Tim Goebel will be on a team with 13-year-old Beatrisa Liang of Granada Hills, who was sixth in the U.S. championships.

HERE AND THERE

Bill Marolt, president of the U.S. ski team, is sticking with his challenge to skiers and snowboarders to win 10 medals at the Salt Lake City Games.

“We’ve developed a sense of momentum and we hope to carry that over to the beginning of next season,” he said.

The highlight this season was Daron Rahlves’ super-G gold medal in St. Anton, Austria, but Erik Schlopy also made an impression by finishing second in a World Cup giant slalom at Bormio, Italy, in December and Kirsten Clark had a noteworthy downhill victory.

Lou Vairo, an assistant coach of the 2002 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team, will coach Team USA at the world championships, April 28-May 13 in Germany. Don Waddell, general manager of the Atlanta Thrashers, will be the U.S. team’s general manager, and Art Berglund, USA Hockey’s senior director of international administration, will be the team’s director of player personnel.

Marie-Jose Perec, who pulled out of the Sydney Games because she felt pressure vying for a third consecutive gold medal in the 400-meter run, told the folks at the French Athletics Federation she will see them soon, according to the French sports newspaper L’Equipe. . . . Philip Dunn of Chula Vista won the national 50K race walk title at Manassas, Va., last week. He qualified for the world track and field championships at Edmonton, Canada, in August and for the Pan Am Cup in Ecuador.

The USA Track and Field elite outdoor season will begin April 28 with a U.S.-versus-the world competition at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. U.S. relay teams will race teams from around the world. At the Drake Relays, also April 28, a special invitational high jump is scheduled, with 2000 Olympians Karol Damon, Erin Aldrich and Amy Acuff competing.

Only 306 days until the Salt Lake City Winter Games.