“No one expected such a great result, so everyone was quite shocked and surprised,” Azam Sanaei told Al Jazeera, in what can only be described as an understatement.
The 34-year-old is the captain and assistant coach of Iran’s women’s ice hockey team that came so close to winning the Asia-Pacific title last month.
The team didn’t even exist three years ago, but now it looks like a force to be reckoned with.
In May, Iran traveled to Bangkok to compete in the IIHF Women’s Asia and Oceania Championship for the first time.
Iran started the eight-nation tournament with a 17-1 victory over India, followed by even more emphatic victories over Kuwait (20-0) and Kyrgyzstan (26-0). They defeated the United Arab Emirates 14-0 in the quarter-finals and Singapore 3-0 in the semi-finals.
Iran’s run was ended by the host nation in the final. The score was 1-1 for much of the game before Thailand – roaring through a large and partisan crowd – pulled out in the dying minutes to win 3-1 and take the gold medal.
Yet silver was still a nice reward for the women from Iran.
“It was our first official experience of the Asian Ice Hockey Championship,” said Sanaei. “All of our competitors had much more ice hockey experience than we did, so even going to the tournament was a big step. It was the sweetest feeling and the proudest moment to reach the final and take second place.
Sanaei’s teammate Fatemeh Esmaeili, the league’s top scorer with 17 goals, told Iranian television that the home crowd and Thailand’s experience had made the difference.
“We were really shocked at the start of the final because we had never played in such an atmosphere before.”
‘An incredible achievement’
For Sanaei, the journey to playing in the finals started when she started rollerblading as a young girl, a popular pastime in Iran. At the age of 14, she started playing inline hockey, a sport that is not very common in her home country.
“Hockey and ice hockey are not popular at all in Iran, they are [among] many sports that not many people know.” She was comfortable with a stick in her hand and was also interested in ice hockey, but until recently there was no international standard ice rink in Tehran.
That changed in 2019 with the opening of the Iran Mall in the capital and the start of a team moving from inline hockey to the colder kind. “From that moment on, our ice hockey practices began,” she said.
The team, she said, practiced day and night to close the gap with more established ice hockey nations.
The outbreak of the COVID pandemic forced the women to wait for their first chance to play in other countries. In January, they finally played their first international matches in Russia, where they reached the final of a five-team tournament in Islamic Countries.
Then came the trip to Thailand, which the women had to pay for themselves.
“About six months ago, our federation became part of the ski federation that had no budget for skating, so we had to pay for everything ourselves, including tickets and visa fees,” said Sanaei.
Given all the obstacles, second place in a major international tournament drew attention inside and outside Iran.
“It is an incredible achievement by the Iranian team to perform so impressively, you could even say that such a success is unprecedented,” Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports and geopolitical economics at SKEMA Business School in France, told Al Jazeera. .
The team also reached another milestone during the tournament when their matches were shown at home – the first time Iranian women’s sports were broadcast live on Iran’s national television.
In a country where women are not allowed to enter the stadiums to watch men’s football, this was considered significant.
“It was such a huge step to have our games live on television,” said Sanaei. “It really means a lot. We hope this continues and will have a positive effect on this sport.”
Chadwick says more state aid is needed to grow the sport.
“This should be seen as just the beginning and not the end of the team’s journey. Indeed, it requires sports officials in Iran to take women’s ice hockey, and women’s sports for that matter, much more seriously,” he said.
“There is an opportunity for the Iranian government to use the success of ice hockey as an incentive to promote women’s sports. It should encourage engagement between relevant groups and not see it as a sinister threat to Iran’s male hegemony.”
The signs are promising as the players were reimbursed – and given bonuses – by the Ministry of Sports for their expenses while playing in Thailand. They received congratulations from Sports Minister Hamid Sajjadi and spokesmen from the Iranian government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It all means that Sanaei is excited about what comes next.
“We are so looking forward to the future because we believe we can make it to the top next time. With all the training we will receive, we can even get there in a year. Whatever happens, we will not lose hope, because we are confident that we will reach the best place.”
And there is a bigger prize, helping to inspire other young girls in Iran to pick up hockey sticks or play a sport.
“Our achievement can help all Iranian women know that there is nothing that can stop them and, even with all the barriers in front of them, if they try, they will make it wherever they want.”