India's 1st women's hockey team enjoys smooth skating in Alberta

Women hockey players from India say they're skating better than ever now that they're on Alberta ice.

India's top female hockey players learned the game against the odds, on frozen Himalayan ponds and in second-hand gear nabbed from brothers.

Now their hard work has brought them to Canada and its slick indoor rinks, under the guidance of one of the world's top female hockey players, HayleyWickenheiser.

They're in Alberta this week for the WickenheiserFemale World Hockey Festival in Calgary and exhibition gamesin Airdrie.

"The ice is quite rough back home. It's quite hard to play. But when you compare it with the indoor rinks here, it's like, you know, the difference is huge," goalieNoor Jahantold the Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesday.

Jahan remembers coaches trying toteach moves and the team struggling to learn them. Now they're performing those without issue on indoor rinks in Alberta.

"We were not so dumb.We can actually do those things," Jahan said. "It was just the surface of the ice that was just making it difficult."

India has had a national men's team since 1989 butwomen first represented India internationally in hockey in 2016. Jahan was dubbed the top goaltender in that competition.

Jahan, who is from therural northern region of Ladakh,started playing because her cousin was on the national team, winning medals, trophies and praise from her family. She borrowed his old skates, which were too big for her.

That's how team defensive playerDiskitAngmolearned, too. Her brother played for the national team.

"We used to steal the gear from our brother," she said. "It was too large for us, but then still we used to wear it and manage."

Determination

Other women were encouraged to start playing, too. The group even builttheir own rink by flooding and brushing a frozen pond. In their part of the Himalayan mountains 3,657 metresabove sea level the temperature can drop to 30 C.

They looked up to the men, who at the time werethe only examples they knew of athletes in the sport.

"We didn't know that women do play hockey," Angmosaid.

After searching online, she found out women play, and at high levels, around the world.

Their own story reached the ears of Wickenheiser, a four-time hockey Olympian, who is an advocate for women in sport and nowassistant director of player development for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Watch India's female hockey players in their picturesque mountain rink on Hayley Wickenheiser'svisit:

Hockey Night in India

7 years ago

Duration 1:32

Hayley Wickenheiser and Andrew Ference are in Ladakh, India promoting hockey. This is the eighth year for the program.

Wickenheiservisited the team at its home rink in Indiain January. The world-classathlete said the air was so thin, she was breathless about 20 seconds into her first scrimmage.

With former Edmonton Oilers captainAndrew Ference and others, Wickenheiserbrought new hockey gear and taught hockey skills to the young women players.

After the full-contact games against the spectacular backdrop, they invited the team toWickenheiser's hockey festival, nicknamed WickFest.

For nearly a decade now, more than 2,000 players compete over eight days in November and take part in clinics run by high-profile coaches and experts.

Bringing the team from India took a lot of fundraising, but that paid off this month. The money will also go toward building outdoor rinks and finishing the only indoor facility in the team'shome region.

While in Canada, the team also played in Vancouver and met Wayne Gretzky.

Future generations

Both players are optimistic for the team's future. They expect the team to face the biggest test of their sport, the Olympics. Jahan said she's looking to the younger women playing hockey to make that happen.

"It's too big of a dream for me, personally. I hate to say that because I've, like, I started playing quite late," the 28-year-old said. "Idefinitely see them coming to Olympic sports, and I see myself sitting on the bench, like cheering them up."

Jahan and other members of the hockey team now teach girls in India to skate and play hockey.

While the team is in Alberta, the women will try out the ice at a variety of rinks, including at WinSport and at the Siksika Deerfoot Sportsplexfor a scrimmage.

They also have a bit of shopping scheduled for some new hockey gear.

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With files from Danielle Nermanand the Calgary Eyeopener.