You know, when the IOC considers things like the the level of international competitiveness in a sport - say, women's ice hockey, for example - it tends to look askance at silliness like this (note: link opens in a PDF). Seriously here - were the Slovaks actively trying to get get the sport turfed from the Olympics? What possessed them to run up the score like that? And how did the Bulgarians decide that it was a good idea to play in this tournament, given that they draw their national team from a grand total of 37 registered female players? How is this any good for anybody? Argh.
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This is especially frustrating given that women's hockey has actually done a pretty good job of closing the gap between one or two great teams and the rest of the pack.
Exhibit A: Sweden
True dat - I remember even the American players saying that Sweden's win was a good thing for the sport in general.
I think I may have been a bit hard on the Slovaks in the above post, and not hard enough on the Bulgarian ice hockey federation for quite clearly sending in a team that wasn't ready. In their other games in the Olympic qualifying tournament, the Bulgarian women lost 41-0 to Italy, 30-1 to Croatia, and 39-0 to Latvia.
Now, I love the Italians, very much, but if you are losing to them by a score of 41-0, then you are really not a very good hockey team. At all. Ever.
It must have been a good moment when they scored the goal against Croatia.
Yes, their goal came on their only shot in that game (one of the 7 total shots on goal that they managed during the entire tournament).
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