Tashkent, Uzbekistan, August 3, 2023: Skating on to the ice rink is half the battle won for Sarina Khosravi, who, like many other girls in Iran, struggles to win recognition from family and the wider community to participate in sports.
Luckily, in her case, she receives the fullest support from her parents to take part in sport. Is it because she is the only child in the family?
Sarina says: “Yes, there are many challenges for women to take part in sports but I didn’t want to use that as an excuse and not play sport. Fortunately, with the support of my family, I’m now proud to say I’m on the verge of representing my country on the international stage.”
Her determination has paid off. At 16, she is part of the Iranian women’s national squad as well as the under-18 team. The forward is one of the 23 girls from 27 National Olympic Committees across Asia, plus Australia and New Zealand, taking part in the OCA/IIHF Under-16 Asian Ice Hockey Youth Camp in Tashkent.
Ice hockey is a new sport to Iran. It came about thanks to the success of inline hockey. The Iran women’s inline hockey squad defied all the odds to win a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Roller Sports Championship in Korea. This included an upset 4-2 victory over the hosts.
At this same tournament, the Iranian men returned home with the gold medal. These achievements have led to a bid to duplicate the success on the ice rink.
“Ice hockey only started in earnest about three or four years ago after we did well in inline hockey. But there is a lot of interest and there are a few hundred women playing the game. But at the elite level, the national level, we have a squad of 20 and I’m very proud to be a part of it,” Sarina revealed.
The Grade 10 Tehran schoolgirl admitted that, if not for TV, she would not have taken up the sport. “I watched it when I was younger on TV and loved the speed of the game as well as its physical nature. It looked exciting and I decided to play it. Thankfully my parents supported me,” she added.