2026 National U16 Women’s Junior Ice Hockey Championship Kicks Off in Sichuan
Four teams consisting of 75 young female ice hockey athletes took part in the competition, namely delegations from Sichuan, Beijing, Guangdong and Qiqihar. Team seeding was determined based on their rankings at the 2025 edition of the championship. Adopting a double round-robin format across a seven-day schedule, teams will be ranked by accumulated match points. Designed to create a platform for exchange and competition among regional youth women's ice hockey teams, the event helps teenage players sharpen athletic skills and mental toughness while nurturing emerging talent for China's domestic women's ice hockey sector.
Aside from Sichuan's opening shutout win, Beijing defeated Qiqihar 3-1 in the afternoon fixture to also register an opening-round triumph. This marks the second consecutive year that the national championship has been hosted in Meishan Area, Tianfu New Area.
The host venue Tsinghua University Affiliated Tianfu School boasts Sichuan’s only standard on-campus ice rink—the Ma John Ice Hockey Arena. Featuring an internationally recognised 1,830-square-metre ice surface, the facility caters to ice hockey, figure skating and other winter sports. The school integrates ice hockey into formal physical education curricula and runs regular ice hockey clubs as well as school team training camps to popularise ice sports among students.
In recent years, Sichuan has actively implemented China’s national winter sports strategy known as the Southward Expansion, Western Development and Eastern Promotion initiative. The province has expanded its network of ice venues, hosted state-level ice hockey tournaments, and built platforms for identifying, training and exchanging young winter sports talents to address the shortage of competitive winter sports athletes in southern China. Through widespread campus engagement and provincial elite team development, Sichuan is pioneering a sustainable model for year-round winter sports development in southern regions.
