The IIHF Women's World U18 Championship, officially the IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, is an annual

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

tournament for national women's under-18 (U18) ice hockey teams, administrated by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland, and ...

(IIHF). It is the junior edition of the

IIHF Women's World Championship The IIHF World Women's Championship (WW or WWC), officially the IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship, is the premier international tournament in women's ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The of ...

and participation is limited to female ice hockey players under 18 years of age.

History

A qualification tournament was held in 2007 to finalize divisional placement and the inaugural championship was held in

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Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada, in January 2008. The United States' national team were the first champions and have remained the dominant force in the tournament, winning gold at eight of fifteen championships and never ranking lower than third place. The Canadian national team is the only team to have defeated the United States to claim the title, winning seven gold medals in addition to seven silver medals and one bronze. The third most successful team in championship history is the

Swedish national team Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, the only nation to unseat either of the top North American teams to claim silver ( 2018, 2023) and winners of five bronze medals. The other national teams to have won bronze are the

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(2),

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

(2), and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

(3). Thirty-two countries participated in the most recent championship ( 2023) across three divisions: Top Division, Division I, and Division II. As with other IIHF tournaments, there is an active system of promotion and relegation between the groups and divisions, the winner of each group gains promotion to the group or division directly above for the following tournament and the lowest ranking team in relegated to the group or division below. Through this system, no two consecutive championships feature the same teams in each group or division and it is possible for a team to rise from Division IIB to the Top Division or fall from the Top Division to Division IIB in the span of five tournaments – though no team has ever accomplished such a meteoric rise or fall. The Top Division is the only division to confer the title of World Champion and comprises the teams ranked first through eighth in the world. Division I comprises twelve teams organized into two groups of six teams each, classified as Group IA and IB. Division II comprises eight teams organized into two groups of four teams each, classified as Groups IIA and IIB. Winning a gold medal in a divisional tournament below the Top Division corresponds with the numeric placement from first, i.e. the Division IA gold medal team ranks 9th in the world, the Division IB gold medal team ranks 15th in the world, and so on. The tournament can be interpreted as the women's counterpart of both the IIHF World U20 Championship and the IIHF World U18 Championship, though it is afforded significantly less in terms of resources or promotion than either of the junior men's tournaments. Media coverage of the women's tournament is similarly lacking in comparison.

List of championships

Participation and medals

References

External links

* Hockey Canada
2008 World Women's Under-18 Championship
* IIHF
IIHF World Women's U18 Championship

at EuroHockey.com {{IIHF International ice hockey competitions for junior teams International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments Women's ice hockey tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 2008 January sporting events Women's U18