Visitors enjoy Cape Breton hospitality at World Women’s Under-18 Hockey Championship

The Women’s Hockey World Championship in Cape Breton draws crowds from all over the world.

It was a rest day Wednesday for Linnea Larsson and other the parents from Team Sweden at the World Under-18 Women’s Hockey Championship in Sydney N.S.

The rest was needed after a long trip across the Atlantic Ocean and cheering hard on Tuesday night during Team Sweden’s game against Team Canada at the Membertou Sport and Wellness Centre.

“This is once in a lifetime, when you see your daughter in this Tre Kronor (three crowns, which is the national emblem of Sweden) shirt,” said Larsson, whose daughter Edith Larsson Onkloo is a forward with the Swedish team. “It might never happen again – maybe, you don’t know.”

Even though it was a long journey, Larsson said most of the Swedish players have family who made the trip.

She added Cape Breton has been making an impression.

“People are really nice,” Larsson said. “You can walk around quite easily, even though everyone drives a car here. We’re not used to that in Sweden.”

Wednesday was moving day at Sydney’s Centre 200, as the tournament changes venues following a preliminary round in Membertou.

“Basically, it’s like starting all over again,” said host committee chair Leijsa Wilton.

With more than double the capacity at the 5,000-seat Centre 200, compared to the roughly 1,800-seat Membertou venue, the challenge now is to fill as many seats as they can - especially for games that will air nationally on TSN.

“It is a bigger venue, so of course it does change up the optics of it,” Wilton said of the move to Centre 200. “But hopefully everybody will come out, be good Cape Bretoners, support and show what we can offer so that we can get more events like this back again.”

The week has been both rewarding and exhausting for the event’s more than 140 volunteers.

“I mean, I’ve been running 16-hour days and I know there are people who are doing the same,” said Wilton.

Meanwhile, Larsson said the hope among Swedish fans is they will be able to fly home with at least a bronze medal.

“It’s an honour for the girls,” she said of the experience. “It’s a big adventure for them, a dream they have had since they were small. So, I think that’s the biggest thing - to share that with them.”

Two years ago, Canada’s final game of the 2024 World Women’s Curling Championship drew a capacity crowd to Centre 200.

Organizers of the World Women’s Under-18 Championship say the hope now is that having Canada in the gold medal game – should the host team reach the tournament final - might do the same.

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