Karoliina Stina Margaretha "Karo" Rantamäki (born 23 February 1978) is a Finnish

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

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 ...

and

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Stadin Gimmat (HIFK Naiset) of the

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...

(NSML), the premier women's ice hockey league in Finland. She holds the all-time career record for games played with the Finnish women's national ice hockey team, having played in 256 top level international matches. She represented Finland at five

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and won bronze medals in the women's ice hockey tournaments in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. She has also represented Finland at thirteen IIHF World Women's Championships and has earned eight World Championship bronze medals (

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

). Rantamäki has played with national championship winning teams in both the Naisten Liiga in Finland and the

Zhenskaya Hockey League The Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL; russian: Женская хоккейная лига, translit=Zhenskaya khokkeynaya liga, translation=Women's Hockey League), officially called the Women's Hockey League (WHL), is a professional ice hockey leagu ...

(ZhHL) in Russia and its predecessor, the Russian Women's Hockey League. The

Finnish Ice Hockey Association The Finnish Ice Hockey Association ( fi, Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto, sv, Finlands Ishockeyförbund) is the governing body of ice hockey in Finland. In 1927, the Finnish Skating Association introduced ice hockey as part of its program and, through ...

trophy for

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

of the Naisten Liiga playoffs was renamed the Karoliina Rantamäki Award in the 2010–11 season and continues to be awarded seasonally.

Playing career

Rantamäki also played for

Finland at the 2010 Winter Olympics Finland participated at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Medalists Review The Finnish Olympic Committee had set a goal of 12 medals for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and considered the result of 5 medals far we ...

, and won a second bronze medal. She also won a bronze medal at the

2010 Four Nations Cup The 2010 4 Nations Cup was an international women's ice hockey competition held in Clarenville, Newfoundland and Labrador and St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador from November 9 to November 13, 2010. Games were played at the Clarenville Event ...

St. John's, Newfoundland St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

. She scored at 2:49 overtime to give Finland the bronze medal at the

2011 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2011 IIHF World Women's Championships was held in April 2011 in Zürich and Winterthur, Switzerland, and took place at Hallenstadion and Deutweg rink. Leading goaltenders Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have play ...

. In addition, she played for

SKIF Nizhny Novgorod HC SKIF Nizhny Novgorod () are a Russian ice hockey team in the Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL). They play in Nizhny Novgorod at the CEC Nagorny, which is also home to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL. SKIF have won the Russian Championship in ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Espoo Finnish women's ice hockey forwards HIFK Naiset players HC SKIF players Espoo Blues Naiset players Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players of Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Russia {{Finland-Winter-Olympic-medalist-stub