Chiho Osawa, the captain of the ice hockey women's national team who will participate in the Beijing Olympics next year, was announced on the 26th. I want to do it. "

The Japan Ice Hockey Federation held an online press conference on the 26th, announcing the 23 members who have been nominated as representatives of Japan's representative "Smile Japan" for ice hockey women who will participate in the Beijing Olympics in February next year.



Captain Osawa, 39-year-old Hanae Kubo, and 20-year-old Akane Shiga, who have a good reputation for high scoring ability, were selected as members.



Osawa, who is the captain of the three tournaments in a row, said, "I want to show that I am stronger than four years ago so that I can give energy to everyone who supports me. I have been preparing for four years with confidence, so I have accumulated. I want to make it a place where I can get out of it. "



In addition, Yuji Iizuka said, "At the Beijing tournament, we aim to break through the qualifying league, which we have not been able to achieve so far, by passing the top. We want to prepare for the first match against Sweden with confidence."



The team will hold training camps in Japan, continue to make adjustments, and prepare for the actual performance.

Japanese opponents

The Beijing Olympics ice hockey girls will participate in 10 countries and regions, two more teams than last time.



Japan, which is ranked 6th in the world ranking in the round-robin qualifying league, is in Group B.



The competition starts the day before the opening ceremony, the first match on February 3rd is Sweden, which is 9th in the world, Denmark, which is 11th in the world on 5th, China, which is the host country in 20th place on 6th, and Czech Republic, which is 7th in the world on 8th. Will play against each other.



In Group A, which has the highest world ranking, all teams can advance to the final tournament, while in Group B, only the top three teams can advance to the final tournament.

Japan's past results

This is the result of the Japanese ice hockey women's Olympics so far.



Ice hockey girls were first adopted for the Olympic Games in 1998 at the Nagano Winter Games.



The six participating nations fought in a round robin, and the host country, Japan, lost all five games and was in the bottom.



At the 2014 Sochi tournament, Japan participated in the Sochi tournament for the first time in four tournaments since the Nagano tournament.



In the Pyeongchang tournament, which was the second consecutive appearance, eight teams lost to Sweden and Switzerland in the qualifying league divided into two groups, but they won the first victory in the Olympic Games by defeating the joint team of South Korea and North Korea. I gave.



Then, in the ranking primaries, he beat Sweden, who lost in the qualifying league, but lost to Switzerland in the 5th and 6th place deciding matches and finished 6th.