Are women being frozen out of Paralympic ice hockey?

Ice hockey has officially been a mixed-gender event at the Winter Paralympics since 2010 – but only four women have taken part in the event in the history of the Games, with Japan’s Akari Fukunishi being the only female player in action at this year’s Milan-Cortina tournament.

Those statistics echo wider concerns about female participation at the winter games. The Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics featured 160 female competitors, more than any previous edition of the Games, but they still only comprised just over a quarter of the athletes who took part.

Women’s para-ice hockey did not meet the eligibility criteria for the Paralympics, which asks for a minimum of two World Championships, sustained participation from a minimum of eight nations, and representation from a minimum three regions. So what more needs to be done to get a women’s medal event at the Games?

More than the Score’s Sophia Hartley talks to two American athletes who are at the forefront of women’s para-hockey’s push for a Paralympic place. Erica McKee is the captain of the US women’s national team, and a major factor in that team existing in the first place. She recalls her route into para-hockey as a nine-year-old girl, the barriers she and others faced in trying to build pathways for girls in the sport, and where she sees the future of the sport heading.

Kelsey DiClaudio is arguably the best female player in para-hockey today, as the MVP and top scorer at the inaugural women’s world championships last year. She’s also nominated for the World Sportsperson with a Disability award at this year’s Laureus global sport awards. She shares her thoughts on the obstacles players still face, the standard of the game at present, and why she was blown away by the level of support the world championships received from fans in the host nation, Slovakia.

Thanks to Hannah Dines for her help in making this episode - for more on this story, check out her article on the BBC Sport website.

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