Women's worlds to be held in Olympic years

The Women's World Championship will now be held annually, including in Olympic years, the IIHF announced Wednesday.

In non-Olympic years, the competition will be held in March and April, and it will take place in August during Olympic years. The change was made because holding two tournaments over two months isn't feasible, as most players maintain day jobs.

"We had many times discussions with the top countries. They are always at the Olympics but couldn't play a few weeks later again, so we discussed whether it could work if we played in August," said IIHF Women's committee chairwoman Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer. "We know that after the Olympics many players end their careers with a highlight and that gives the opportunity to work with new players entering the team."

Since 2014, only the teams in lower divisions in the women's competition would compete during the same year as the Olympics. The top division was excluded, which created promotion and relegation difficulties.

"We wanted to find a long-term solution because we had a challenge with promotion and relegation every four years. We wanted to solve different issues with this proposal. It is a really fair solution for all the countries participating in the women's program," said Kolbenheyer.

The 2021 women's worlds were held in Calgary, with Canada triumphing over the United States for gold.

The Danish Ice Hockey Union has applied to host the 2022 women's worlds in August.

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