Hanna-Riikka Sallinen ( Nieminen, previously Välilä; born 12 June 1973) is a Finnish retired

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 ...

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

rinkball Rinkball is a winter team sport played on ice with ice skates and is most popular in Finland, where it is known as ''kaukalopallo''. This ball sport originated in Sweden in the 1960s and from there landed in Finland in the 1970s. The objective ...

, and

pesäpallo Pesäpallo (; sv, boboll, both names literally meaning "nest ball", colloquially known in Finnish as pesis, also referred to as Finnish baseball) is a fast-moving bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland a ...

player. She is one of the most highly decorated players to have ever competed in international ice hockey. Sallinen played sixteen seasons with the

Finland women's national ice hockey team The Finnish women's national ice hockey team represents Finland at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's World Championships, the Olympic Games, the Four Nations Cup, and other international-level wome ...

and earned two

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

bronze medals, one

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

silver and six bronze medals, and three European Championship gold medals. In 2007, Sallinen was one of the first two women inducted into the

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame The Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is housed in and administered by the ('Finnish Ice Hockey Museum'), a part of the Vapriikki Museum Centre, in Tampere, Finland. The was founded in 1979 with the mission to record, document, and exhibit objects, ...

, along with

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

Marianne Ihalainen Marianne Ihalainen (born 22 February 1967) is a retired Finnish ice hockey forward. She won a bronze medal as captain of the Finnish national team at the 1998 Winter Olympics and also won six IIHF World Women's Championship bronze medals, fou ...

. She was inducted into the

IIHF Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Interna ...

on 21 May 2010 in

Cologne, Germany Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

as part of the

festivities; she was only the fourth woman and the first European woman to receive this honor. She is currently the leading all-time European scorer in World Championships and Olympics. Sallinen's bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang made her the oldest player to ever win an Olympic medal in ice hockey, replacing her compatriot

Teemu Selänne Teemu Ilmari Selänne (; born July 3, 1970) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey winger. He began his professional career in 1989–90 with Jokerit of the SM-liiga and played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Winnipe ...

who set the record at the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

after winning bronze in the men's ice hockey tournament at age 43. Sallinen was awarded the medal at age 44, twenty years after she first won an Olympic medal in the inaugural women's Olympic hockey tournament. In 2022 she became the ninth woman player named to the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

; she is the first woman not born in North America to be so honoured.

Ice hockey playing career

Sallinen played eleven seasons in the Naisten SM-sarja and was a five time

Finnish Champion In Finland, the ''Suomen mestaruus'' (SM; ‘Finnish Champion’) is the winner of the highest level of national competition in a particular sport. ''Suomen mestaruussarja'' (Finnish for ‘Finnish Championship’) is the competition in which the w ...

, first in 1988–89 with Etelä-Vantaan Urheilijat (EVU), then in 1993–94 with the Keravan Shakers, and in 1996–97, 1997–98, and 2015–16 with

JYP Jyväskylä Naiset JYP Naiset or JYP Jyväskylä Naiset is a Finnish ice hockey team in the Naisten Mestis. Their home is the Jyväskylän harjoitusjäähalli ('Jyväskylä training ice hall') in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. JYP Naiset have won the Aurora Bore ...

. She scored 201

goals A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer to: Sport * Goal (sports), a method of scoring in many sports, or the physical structure or area where scoring occurs ** Goals, the goal frame in ...

and notched 194 assists (395

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

) in 135

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

games, averaging 2.93 points per game across her Naisten SM-sarja career, and appeared in 41 Naisten SM-sarja playoff games, scoring 86 points, (36 goals and 50 assists). In 2016, she joined

HV71 HV71 (), often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the first tier of Swedish ice hockey. The team played in the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League s ...

in the SDHL. She would captain the team from 2017 to 2019, scoring a total of 119 points in 92 games. She was suspended for four games in the 2018-19 playoffs after bodychecking a

Leksands IF Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. The team plays in the top-tier league, SHL, after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus earning promotion to the SHL. The c ...

player. She announced her retirement from competition in April 2019, at age 46, shortly after achieving silver at the

2019 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international Ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Espoo, Finland from 4 to 14 April 2019 at the Espoo Metro Areena. The United States won their ...

International ice hockey career

Sallinen represented Finland at three IIHF Women's European Championships, eight

IIHF World Women's Championships 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 offi ...

, and four Olympics. Over her international career she would score 109 goals, 95 assists for 204 points while accumulating only 24 PIMs. She made her international debut at the 1989 Women's European Championship. She was also a member of Team Finland during the first

IIHF 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 Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...

-sanctioned international Women's World Ice Hockey Championship in 1990. Leading all players in scoring at the

1994 IIHF Women's World Championship The 1994 IIHF Women's World Championships was held April 11–17, 1994, at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York, in the United States. The Team Canada won their third consecutive gold medal at the World Championships defeating the Unit ...

, she was named the tournament's Best Forward. After leading all players in scoring at the

1997 IIHF Women's World Championship The 1997 IIHF Women's World Championships was held March 31 – April 6, 1997, in seven Canadian cities all in the Province of Ontario. Canadian national women's ice hockey team, Team Canada won their fourth consecutive gold medal at the World Ch ...

, she became the first woman to be named a top-3 forward in three consecutive World Championships. In her first Olympics 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 ...

she led the tournament in scoring, amassing 12 points (7 goals & 5 assists) in six games and leading the Finnish team to the bronze medal. Sallinen would also lead the Finnish national team to three European Championship titles and six IIHF World Women's Championship bronze medals and one silver. In August 2013, the IIHF reported that she was attempting a comeback and in December 2013, following several matches in the Naisten SM-sarja, she was selected for the Finnish women's team for the

Sochi Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games (russian: XXII Олимпийские зимние игры, XXII Olimpiyskiye zimniye igry) and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (russian: Сочи 2014), was an international ...

. She made the Finnish Olympic team again for the

2018 Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

, helping Finland to a bronze medal. She scored 4 points in 7 games at the

as Finland won their first silver medal in history. During the tournament, she averaged 19:58 time-on-ice, second on the team. The logo for the Championship, held in Finland, was designed by

Michelle Karvinen Michelle Karvinen (born 27 March 1990) is a Danish-Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finnish national team, currently signed with Frölunda HC Dam of the Damettan. Karvinen has been described as "the world's best technical player" and ...

in tribute to her career.

Rinkball career

, Sallinen won the European Championship gold in 1989.

Personal life

Sallinen was born Hanna-Riikka Nieminen on 12 June 1973 in

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

Central Finland Central Finland ( fi, Keski-Suomi; sv, Mellersta Finland) is a Regions of Finland, region ( / ) in Finland. It borders the regions of Päijät-Häme, Pirkanmaa, South Ostrobothnia, Central Ostrobothnia, North Ostrobothnia, Northern Savonia, No ...

. She was raised in a sports-oriented home; her father and two older brothers were also successful athletes. Her father, Eero, was a Finnish Champion pesäpallo player in the 1960s. Lasse Nieminen, Sallinen’s eldest brother, played nearly 500 games with

JYP Jyväskylä JYP is an ice hockey team playing in the Finnish top division Liiga. They play in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the LähiTapiola Areena. History JYP was founded in 1923. First it was the ice hockey section of the sports club ''Jyväskylän Palloilija ...

in the

Liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

and currently serves as assistant coach to the JYP U16 juniors team. Juha “Jussi” Nieminen, Sallinen’s second eldest brother, played twelve seasons in the Superpesis with Jyväskylän Kiri. Sallinen is a

physical therapist Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

by training and works in the public sector with disabled and permanently ill people, in addition to working with her husband in the family’s pain management and rehabilitation practice. Sallinen and former Liiga player Mika Välilä were married in 2002 and divorced in early 2018. Their two sons, Emil Välilä (born 2003) and Elis Välilä (born 2005), play on the U18 and U16 teams of the

Tappara Tappara (; Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga. They play at ''Tampere Deck Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 18 Finnish league championships (1959, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, ...

ice hockey club respectively, the same junior organization in which their father developed. Sallinen and osteopath Petteri Sallinen married in late 2018. They have a physical therapy practice in Sweden, in which each of them takes responsibility for one-half of patient care; Petteri focuses on alleviating patients’ pain and Riikka develops physical therapy regimens for rehabilitation. Petteri, a former film director, was previously married to actress and theater director Anu Hälvä; they divorced in early 2018, and have two children together.

Ice hockey career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honours

Ice hockey

Other sports

References

Content in this article is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at :fi:Riikka Sallinen; see its history for attribution.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sallinen, Riikka 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Jyväskylä Finnish women's ice hockey forwards Finnish ice hockey coaches Pesäpallo players Finnish bandy players Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players of Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey players with retired numbers Swedish Women's Hockey League coaches HV71 Dam players JYP Jyväskylä Naiset players KalPa Naiset players Finnish expatriate ice hockey people in Sweden Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland