The History of Ringette

Ringette is a winter season team sport played on an ice rink using ice skates. From its beginnings on a skating rink in 1963 in Espanola, Ontario, the sport has spread to the United States, Finland, Sweden, and France. In Canada, an annual national level competition is held called the Canadian Ringette Championships. The sport is also included in the Canada Winter Games.

Ringette was invented in 1963 by the Northern Ontario Recreation Directors Association (NORDA), led by the two founders of ringette, Sam Jacks, from West Ferris, Ontario, director of Parks and Recreation for the city of North Bay, Ontario and Mirl "Red" McCarthy, recreation director for the town of Espanola, Ontario. The title of birthplace of ringette is shared by both North Bay, Ontario, and Espanola, Ontario, where the first game was played in the fall of 1963 under the direction of McCarthy.

NORDA recognized the problem of limited girls' winter recreational programs and decided to find a solution.

First league

In 1964-1965, Sudbury, Ontario formed the first ever ringette league, comprising four teams.

In 1979, Juhani Wahlsten introduced ringette in Finland. Wahlsten created some teams in Turku. Finland's first ringette club was Ringetteläisiä Turun Siniset and the country's first ringette tournament took place in December, 1980. In 1979 Juhani Wahlsten invited two coaches Wendy King and Evelyn Watson from Dollard des Ormeaux ( a suburb of Montreal, Quebec, Canada) to teach girls of various ages how to play ringette.

The National Association of Ringuette of Finland was created in 1983. Currently 10,000 young Finnish girls participate in 31 ringette clubs.

Ringette was introduced to Sweden in the 1980s. The first ringette club was Ulriksdals, in Stockholm. The national federation of ringette was established in 1990and the elite league Ringetteförbundet was established in 1994.

There are programs of "twin towns" between Swedish ringette association and Canadian associations for the development of the sport within the Swedish population. More than 6,000 girls are registered annually.

World Ringette Championships

The World Ringette Championships are held once every two years. The winning national team is awarded the Sam Jacks Trophy.

The first World Championships were held in 1990 in the city of Gloucester in Ontario, Canada. Three countries participated: Canada, Finland and United States, sending a total of 8 teams. Finland finished seventh and the United States eighth while Canadian teams monopolized the podium.

The second world Championship took place in 1992 in Helsinki, in Finland. There were two Canada teams, Finland, United States, France, Sweden and Russia.

The third World Championship was played in 1994 in Minnesota, United States. There were two Canada teams, Finland, United States, Sweden and Russia. Finland won the Sam Jacks Trophy, its very first world championship.

The 1996 World Championships took place in Stockholm, Sweden. Canada won the gold medal beating Finland 6-5 in extra time.

Since 1994, these two countries (Canada and Finland) have battled for the world title. Finland took it in 1994 and in 2000, while Canada won the gold medal in 1996 and in 2002. The victory by Canada in 2002 is particularly notable. Having been defeated by the score 4-3 in extra time against Finland in 2000, Canada took its revenge by defeating their arch-rival by the score 3-1 in front of an arena filled with about 4,000 supporters in Edmonton, Alberta. The final match was broadcast on CBC and followed by 544,000 Canadian televiewers.

Since the 2004 World Championships, Finland has dominated. The 2004 World championships were played in Stockholm, where Finland won the world championship by crushing Canada 9-3 in the final.

In 2007, the World Championships were played in Ottawa, Canada. The final game required overtime after Finnish player Marjukka Virta tied the game 4–4, and Anne Pohjola scored allowing Finland to overcome Canada 5-4. Sweden won its first medal in the World Ringette Championship (a bronze medal) by beating the United States 10-9 in overtime.

In 2010, Finland won its fifth world title in front of 10,000 spectators in Tampere by again beating Canada. The United States had their revenge on Sweden defeating them 19-1.

The 2013 World Championships marked the 50th anniversary of the sport and took place in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.

The 2016 World Ringette Championships took place in Helsinki, Finland.

The 2017 World Ringette Championships took place in Mississauga, ON, Canada.

The 2019 World Ringette Championships took place in Burnaby, BC, Canada.

The 2021 World Ringette Championships were postponed due to COVID-19 global pandemic and were moved to 2022.