Jiro Nihei (born 9 March 1971 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

) is a practical shooter and former professional ice hockey

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. In 2019, Jiro Nihei took gold in the Manual Open division at the 2019 IPSC Rifle World Shoot. In 2017 he took Gold in the Manual division at the Nordic Rifle Championship. He has also been competing in the IPSC Production handgun division. His professional ice hockey career began in 1988 playing for

AIK IF Allmänna Idrottsklubben Ishockeyförening (abbreviated ''AIK IF'', also known as ''AIK Hockey'', often abbreviated ''AIK'' in hockey subjects), is the ice hockey department of sports club Allmänna Idrottsklubben based in Stockholm, Sweden. Sin ...

in the

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (officially SHL; sv, Svenska Hockeyligan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, an ...

. He then mainly played in the

Swedish Division 2 Division 2 is the fourth level in the league system of Swedish football and comprises 84 Swedish football teams. Division 2 had status as the official second level from 1928 to 1986 but was replaced by Division 1 in 1987. It then had status a ...

until 2001 when he again played in the top Swedish Hockey League, this time for

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

. Jiro went on playing in the Asia League for the Japanese Cranes Team. Jiro has also participated in various international competitions with the Japanese National Hockey Team. For example, he was on the Japanese U20 Team in the 1989-1990 season and was on the Japanese national team at the 1998 Ice Hockey World Championship. Notably, he played for Japan against Finland and the Czech Republic at the

2004 IIHF World Championship The 2004 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship was held between 24 April and 9 May 2004 in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic. It was the 68th ice Hockey World Championships, and was run by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Qualific ...

. Jiro's twin brother has also played ice hockey professionally as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Their father is Japanese and mother

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nihei, Jiro Living people 1971 births Swedish ice hockey goaltenders Swedish people of Finnish descent Swedish people of Japanese descent Swedish twins Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2003 Asian Winter Games Ice hockey players at the 2003 Asian Winter Games Asian Games medalists in ice hockey Ice hockey people from Stockholm