It is fair to say that after the Berlin Worlds 2019, where we positioned last in the tournament of the Para Ice Hockey World Championships, the whole team was pretty disheartened and had about as much motivation as a Sloth with narcoleptic tendencies. For anybody who didn’t read my Blog about the Berlin Worlds I will explain what happened… in fact I will summarise for you. The Great Britain Para Ice Hockey Team needed to place 5th or higher so we didn’t get dropped into Pool C and therefore making it so much harder to get into the Winter Olympics 2026 in Italy. The GB team fought hard, however it ultimately came down to one team, Poland. Long story short we lost 3-2 and we subsequently got dropped to Pool C. It was a very low point in our sporting career and very understandable why we were disillusioned with the trajectory of our sport.
When we returned to the UK events were already unfolding in the far east that would have grave consequences for us all in the UK. I am of course talking about COVID 19. Little did we know just how much our way of life would change for the foreseeable future if not for ever. We, as a team, went back to our families and back to whatever our normalities would consist of and tried to put the events of Berlin behind us as much as we could… it didn’t help that all the games were already posted online for the world to see. Salt, wounds etc.
It wasn’t long before the world had to think about something even bigger when in Wuhan Provence, China, somebody had contracted, the afore mentioned, Covid 19 from eating bat soup. I know some countries have their cultures but to be honest bat soup, no matter how it’s cooked or even by the best Michelin Star Chef, just does not go on my list of things to try. With international travel at a click of a button the virus started to spread around the world from person-to-person contact. Soon the WHO (World Health Organisation) not the pop group, had officially called it a Pandemic and our Prime Minister Boris Johnson, I think it was… we have had a lot of PMs since then, put us into lockdown telling us to stay at home.
I remember when the PM came on the telly and announced that we would go into lockdown… it felt like a movie and I must be honest; I had some anxiety about the lockdown. I was single then living on my own, which at the time was a blessing in disguise, as being disabled I was in the ‘at risk’ and ‘vulnerable’ group and told to isolate until the pandemic was over or we have a vaccination. Well luckily the vaccination came first and within seven months I was in the queue waiting to be pricked by the over worked and underpaid, but lovely nurses at one of the many huge a very busy vaccination centres around the country, then it was back to ‘house arrest’ somewhere deep in the Wiltshire countryside. It definitely could have been worse; I could have been in a Highrise or a Flat somewhere with no garden. Anyway, lockdown wasn’t too bad as I found out I had been self-isolating for about three years prior to the pandemic and not a lot had changed in my life. The Media were doing their usual thing of ‘everything is all doom and gloom’ and in the end I had to turn it off and renew my subscriptions to every major streaming site there was and binge on movies, comedies and documentaries. Once that started to get boring, I had soon completed You Tube and got to Expert level on Pornhub. Suppose that’s what you get for being single in lockdown.
The GB sledge hockey team rallied around everyone and tried to get people to use zoom for Hiit classes and just a general chat and keep in contact really. I was not into the wizardry of zoom and technology and it took me a long time to join in on one of the classes. Once I got involved in one it was very good and I had forgotten just how good fitness was for the mind and body. Especially a bored one. I wasn’t completely confined to the house as I have a Beagle called Lexi that I took out every afternoon/evening. Lexi had turned from just a dog to my ESA (Emotional Support Animal) and if it were not for her, I would have found lockdown so much harder.
2020 flew by in lockdown, then at one stage we were allowed to come out to play for a bit, then it was nope we messed up and you’re all grounded again. A lot of it was pretty comical in the midst of a deadly pandemic that was taking thousands of lives every day. 2021 came and I think it was lockdown 3.0 had arrived in the midst of winter and being confined to the house again was really taking its toll on me mentally. I more or less became a recluse until the days started to lengthen and the big yellow firey thing in the sky started to shine once more. I was forced out of the house to start foraging around Tesco for food and wash kit trying to stifle any type of cough or sneeze for fear of being lynched out of the store. It was so comical. The look you got when you sneezed or coughed in front of people was one of disgust and contempt. Even if it was completely innocent like a fly flew into your mouth.
It had been a while since I had had any human contact in every sense of the word so I was convinced by a friend to get back on the dating websites and put myself out there. I first had to learn how to interact with real people and not talk to them like you would a dog in a high-pitched baby voice. It’s just not a good look when you meet a prospective partner and run up to them and pat them on the head saying ‘good girl’ it gets frowned upon, apparently. I did have a few dates in the beginning, however I was assured that you need to go on lots of dates to find your one true love, so to speak. And love I did find, even looking like a Hermit who had just walked out of the woods straight onto a date. Fast forward to the present time and we are a couple happily living together.
Concurrent to my love life the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) decided to have the 2021 Pool C Tournament in Finland. Just two teams in the whole tournament, us, and Finland. Now Covid was still present and there was not a sufficient Covid plan of action put in place to protect the athletes and staff. The IPC turned around to us and said if you don’t go you will be staying in Pool C and Finland will be ascending to Pool B without even playing a competitive game of Hockey. Finland was unable to put in safety measures that would give some level of protection for the team, so the hard choice was made for us. We would pull out of the tournament therefore resigning ourselves to an extra year in Pool C and it did not go down well within the team. We felt we were being punished for putting our health and safety first. You must remember the whole team is disabled and on the ‘at risk’ and ‘vulnerable’ group. Getting Covid could literally put any one of us in an early grave. No IPC tournament is worth dying for.
2022 arrived and the world is looking slightly more pleasant than the last year. I get a message from a friend within the team, he tells me of a rumour that the next Pool C tournament is possibly going ahead at the end of the year. YES! We finally have a goal to work to, nothing worse than going to the gym or doing exercise and not having a goal to work for. Although when my friend told me of the destination, I was rather sceptical and thought he was taking the piss. So, I kept it to myself and didn’t tell a soul for fear of looking like an idiot until a few months later when the team met up for training one month. In the meeting the Coach told us that the Pool C tournament would be held in… (drumroll)… Bangkok, Thailand. I know what you’re thinking. That famous Ice Hockey Nation of Thailand. In all honesty I didn’t even know they had an ice rink, but this was genuine. The IPC had, in all their wisdom, asked Thailand to hold the tournament from the 1st of December to the 12th. It was to include six other teams most of which are beginners really, however it was great to see so many teams join in considering Pool C only consisted of GB and Finland just last year. It was now time to start training and building up the team with some new blood.
This time the Coaches asked three of the females from the newly formed women’s GB team to join the men’s team in Bangkok. At the moment the men’s team is Co-ed up until 2025 when the two teams will be single sex only. Every one of those female athletes have well and truly earned their spot on the team and have integrated themselves quite nicely into the team dynamic and I’m sure they will prove themselves a worthy teammate within the squad.
There is only a month to go before we fly out to Thailand and the team is looking very strong. Probably one of the strongest teams I have seen since I joined all the way back in 2013. This should be the biggest delegation that the GB Para Ice Hockey team has seen since that bronze medal the team won in Japan 2013. We are classed as one of the favourites in the group and that is an unusual position for us to be in considering we are normally in Pool B fighting it off for the last two positions in the group. Pool C should see us go top and rise back into the ranks of Pool B once more, however nothing is guaranteed, and we will have to play every game like it is a gold medal match. I know I can’t wait to get back on the ice after so long away and represent my country once again in the field of sport.
As Bangkok looms on the not-too-distant horizon I am left pondering a big and important question to myself. Will this be my last World Championships with the GB team? I am not the young physically fit lad I used to be and in Para sport I know you can get older people still playing, but as you all know sledge hockey is a very physical sport and I don’t think my body can take many more big hits or injuries, especially at the young age of 37 years and 60 months old. I would love to say that we have a whole new wave of young talent coming through to take over my spot on the team, however that would be a lie. There are people coming through but not nearly enough and so I am putting out a call to anybody with a disability who like a fast, hard and very physical sport to come forward and get on the ice at one of your local rinks. The only way I can describe Sledge Hockey is it’s like rugby on ice. Google it and find out where your local sledge hockey club is and just try it out. I guarantee you will come off the ice with a smile on your face. You may find in a few years you could be on the ice in a faraway country battling it out against the best in the world for a medal of some kind. One can most definitely dream, right?
I shall leave you with this quote as I close this blog.
‘Some people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake to find it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.’
T.E.Lawrence
Till next time folks
