Sled hockey — also known as sledge hockey or Para ice hockey — was born in the 1960s at a physical rehabilitation center in Stockholm, Sweden. A group of hockey players didn’t want to give up the sport that they loved after becoming disabled, so they set about inventing a game that had all the physicality, speed and technical skills of hockey but for people who couldn’t play standing hockey. They took a sled and modified it with skate blades, fashioned poles with bike handles for sticks, and developed the sport on a frozen lake in Stockholm.
It took a while for the sport to catch on around the world. It became popular in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, then slowly spread in the 1980s. By the Paralympic Winter Games Lillehammer 1994, sled hockey had made it onto the Paralympic program.
Those modified sleds from the 1960s have given way to strong, light sleds made from aluminum or steel set on top of two blades. Players carry two sticks that have a pick on one end for digging into the ice and a blade on the other to shoot and pass. Players wear typical hockey equipment as hits are very much a part of the game and the puck flies at more than 60 miles per hour.
Team USA wasn’t a major player early on, as sled hockey had only been played in the U.S. starting in the late 1980s. In fact, an American team didn’t even compete at the 1994 Games. The Americans made their Paralympic debut in 1998 and finished in sixth place. But by 2002, Team USA had caught up and passed the rest of the world in winning its first gold medal. After taking bronze in 2006, the U.S. has won gold at every Paralympics since, losing just one game in Paralympic play during that time. The U.S. is tied with Canada and Norway with five total medals, but those two nations can boast only a single gold medal each.
There is just a single sled hockey tournament at the Games. The sport is officially mixed gender but just two women have competed thus far.
Sled hockey at the Games will take place at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, which is also a host venue hockey during the Olympic Winter Games.
Updated on February 13, 2022. For more information, contact the sport press officer here.