Cape Breton to host IIHF under-18 women’s world hockey championship

Sydney, N.S., and Membertou First Nation will host the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Under-18 Women’s Championship next winter.

Sydney, N.S., and Membertou First Nation have been chosen to host the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Under-18 Women’s Championship next winter.

Cape Breton’s successful bid for the 2026 tournament was announced in front of a crowd of a few hundred female hockey players and fans at Sydney’s Centre 200 on Sunday.

Those in attendance watched from their seats in real time as TSN made the announcement on the arena’s jumbotron during the 2025 World Women’s Hockey Championship preliminary game between Canada and the United States.

The tournament will bring the best female hockey players in the world 17-and-under to Cape Breton for games taking place Jan 8-18, 2026.

Along with host Team Canada, other nations represented in the tournament will include the United States, Czechia, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland and Japan.

The successful bid is another in a long line of victories for women’s and girl’s hockey in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

In 2022, the community won the nationwide Kraft Hockeyville competition - which came with a $250,000 grand prize.

That money has been used towards the construction - still ongoing - of a new arena dedicated to women’s and girl’s hockey on campus at Cape Breton University. It’s expected to open in May.

Cape Breton also hosted the Telus Cup - the national under-18 boys’ hockey championship - in Membertou in 2024.

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