Kirsi Maaria Hänninen (born 3 October 1976 in

Joensuu Joensuu (; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Karelia. It is located in the eastern interior of the country and in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Joensuu is approximately , while the sub-region has a population ...

, Finland) is a Finnish retired

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) 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. Tw ...

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 l ...

and

pesäpallo Pesäpallo (; ; , colloquially known in Finnish as pesis and also referred to as Finnish baseball) is a fast-moving bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other ...

player. She played 116 games with the Finnish national ice hockey team and won a bronze medal with them in the women's ice hockey tournament at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

Playing career

Over her ten-year ice hockey career, Hänninen played with five different teams in the

Naisten SM-sarja The is the national premier league for women's ice hockey in Finland. Founded by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association as the Naisten Suomen mestaruus, SM-sarja (NSMs; ) in 1982, it was known as the Naisten Liiga (NSML;) from 2017 until being rebr ...

, the highest level women's hockey league in Finland. She spent four seasons, from 1996 to 2000, with

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

and won the SM-sarja Championship with them in 1996 and 1997. She also played with JoKP (1992–93),

Kiekko-Espoo Kiekko-Espoo is a Finnish professional ice hockey club founded in 2018 as a continuation of the Kiekko-Espoo team originally founded in 1984. Kiekko-Espoo men's team plays in the Liiga, where they were promoted for the 2024–25 Liiga season, 20 ...

(1993–94),

KalPa Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Niiralan monttu, Olvi Areena. Team history Established in 1929 as ''Sortavalan Palloseura'' in Sortavala, the club r ...

(1995–96), and

Oulun Kärpät Oulun Kärpät (Finnish language, Finnish for "Oulu Stoat, Ermines", sometimes referred to as Kärpät Oulu) is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Oulu and playing in the top-tier Finnish Liiga. Kärpät have won the Finnish champion ...

(2001-02). Hänninen is well known in Finland for her career in the

Superpesis The Superpesis is the highest level of the Finnish pesäpallo league system. Contested by 13 clubs in men's league and 12 clubs in women's league, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Ykköspesis. Seasons usually run from ...

, Finland's top pesäpallo league, where she competed from 1993 to 2005 and was a five-time Finnish Champion.

Personal life

Hänninen is a founding member of

VRT Finland VRT may refer to: * VRT (broadcaster), Flemish public broadcaster * Vehicle registration tax (Ireland) * Vertiv Vertiv is an American multinational provider of critical infrastructure and services for data centers, communication networks, an ...

, an underwater structural inspection company operating in the Baltic Sea and Central Europe, and ias CEO of the company.

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * 1976 births Living people Finnish women's ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics JYP Jyväskylä Naiset players KalPa Naiset players Kiekko-Espoo Naiset players Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Oulun Kärpät Naiset players Ice hockey people from Joensuu Pesäpallo players {{Finland-Winter-Olympic-medalist-stub