The first-ever Youth Olympic Games 3-on-3 cross-ice ice hockey tournaments concluded yesterday, with Team Yellow stars (women) and Team Green Leafs (men) winning gold medal that are both unique and unprecedented.

The tournaments have been an early highlight of the Games, both for the action on the ice that has exceeded expectations, and a tremendous level of inclusiveness that saw 43 IIHF member nations have at least one athlete taking part.

“It has been a smashing success,” said IIHF President René Fasel, who watched the gold medal game from the stands with IOC President Thomas Bach and Athlete Role Models Florence Schelling and Mark Streit. “The quality of the play has been really good and shows a new dimension of ice hockey that I think is very appealing.”

It was certainly a tournament of firsts. Qatar and Hong Kong, for example, have never before sent an athlete to any Winter Olympics. On such player was Thawab Al-Subaey, a 15-year-old Qatari forward who made national headlines when he qualified through his NOC Skills competition, and became his country’s first flag bearer at a winter Olympics Games.

“I like the 3-on-3 it’s always shooting, shooting, shooting, I like the offence,” said Al-Subaey.

Hong Kong forward Yam Yau won gold with Team Green Leafs, and in the process became his country’s first medalist in any winter Olympic event.

“It’s an honour,” said Yau Yam, who can now lay claim to Hong Kong’s first Winter Olympic gold medal. “I never thought I was going to get a medal representing Hong Kong. There’s only two Hong Kong players represented here."

"These guys on my team, we’re gonna be friends for life. We only met a few days ago but we bonded very well.”

Another history-maker was Luisa Wilson who was part of a Yellow Stars team that included players from Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, and New Zealand among others. She played a big part in her team’s gold medal run, becoming in the process the first Mexican to win a Winter Olympic medal.

“Ice hockey is not a common sport in Mexico, but if kids see that it’s possible to go to the Olympics then this might open their eyes to hockey and try it out.”

The feelings of the players were echoed by members of the National Olympic Committees, many of whom were seeing their athletes compete in Olympic Ice Hockey for the very first time.

“It was like a dream came true for our athletes,” said Juan Bemejo of the Spain National Olympic Committee. “We won two gold medals so we are super happy, because in 5-on-5 we would normally not have the chance to be here.”

“I think especially in a small nation in ice hockey like Australia it’s great to be on the Olympic stage,” said Nic Cicero of the Australian National Olympic Committee. “I think the 3-on-3 tournament is fantastic, we’re seeing it now in cricket in Australia and tennis that they’re bringing smaller, more action-packed games rather than the regular sports. The product is a credit to the organizing committee and a credit to the IIHF, it was a fantastic product.”

“Great tournament, we really enjoyed the games,” said Bin Hong from the Chinese National Olympic Committee. “There was very good organization. I think this should absolutely be in future Youth Olympic Games.”

The planning of the concept for 3-on-3 cross-ice began in the summer of 2017 at the IIHF Hockey Development Camp. It was initially planned as a demonstration sport, but after it was presented to the IOC there was enthusiastic support to make it a medal event.

“I think the biggest surprise was the quality of play that we’ve seen on the ice,” said Aku Nieminen, the Membership Development Manager for the IIHF and the tournament’s Event delegate for the Youth Olympics.

“We expected that each team will have big a skill-level difference within but to our surprise it was not the case. Even though we used a system to balance out skill-levels, one could hardly notice any difference. The players from the non-traditional hockey nations truly showed skill.”

In preparing for the 3-on-3, the IIHF recognized the need for the players to be competitively balanced, but also to be able to come together in a short time to compete at the YOG. The federation therefore selected coaches that have participated in the IIHF Hockey Development Camp, which is a camp that brings in over a hundred players from different countries for a week of ice hockey training and scrimmages.  

Coaches like Kristen Wright from the women’s silver medalists Team Black. The USA Hockey coach found innovative ways to get her players to “break the ice” and get to know each other. With the team only being together for a week and playing nine games in that span, team-building became an even more important aspect of the competition.

“Before every game we had a set routine, the girls warmed up dancing to music and then played “name tag” where they needed to tag each other and say the other girl’s name, that way they get to know each other and get over the language barrier while having fun.”

A successful team-building initiative, helped along by the coaches but also driven by players that have made an effort to get to know their teammates, has helped drive a successful product on the ice.

“We really really liked the tournament, it was a great success,” said Boldizsar Vegh of Hungary’s National Olympic Committee. “At the beginning the players didn’t really get what it was all about, but after one or two practices they really liked it and started to behave as a team on and off the ice.”

“I mean this is what’s going to happen in their lives, they are going to go and meet different people and different cultures and have to work together for projects, so that is a nice model of that aspect of life, done within an ice hockey environment.”