World Championships
Lily brings home bronze
Year 9 student Lily recently helped Australia to a bronze medal at the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship Division II tournament in Istanbul.
Nine countries were represented in the competition: the Netherlands, Great Britain, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Spain, Turkey, Mexico and Australia.
At just 14, Lily is the youngest age eligible to represent her country. She and her teammates surprised the Australian ice hockey community by beating the Netherlands and Latvia on their journey to third place - the first Australian team to do so.
It was an achievement made more significant by the fact that while all members of the team were Australian citizens, a number live and play overseas. When they met in Turkey, they only had a few days training and one warm-up match before the international competition began.
Lily has been passionate about ice hockey since she was seven years old and living in the United States. When her family returned to Australia, she had to join a co-ed team, as there were too few girls her age participating in the sport here.
Now she plays for the Sydney Bears in both the U15 Mixed Team and the Women’s Team (open age). She also trains with the Sydney Sirens (who play in the Australian competition in summer) and is one of only two girls selected to play in the NSW U15 Mixed Team, which competes in the national championship next week.
While Lily admits that fitting her significant training commitments around her schoolwork is a challenge, she’s well on the way to achieving her dream of gaining selection for the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey team.