As World Leaders in Blind Hockey, Canadian Blind Hockey will continue to work toward growing the sport internationally. There are several criteria factors that come in to the application to the IPC. Canadian Blind Hockey continues to work on international development towards these goals.
Completed Objectives:
2010 – Founding meeting of Canadian Blind Hockey. Set goals to unify Para sport of Blind Hockey and create international competition that will culminate with a World Championships and inclusion in the Winter Paralympic Games.
2013 – Hosted first-ever National Blind Hockey Tournament with a codified rulebook and standardized adapted puck.
2018 – Major milestone: hosted first Canada vs USA International Blind Ice Hockey Series. Series continues annually (Pittsburgh 2018, Ottawa 2019, Fort Wayne 2022, Toronto 2023, St Louis 2024).
2019 – Para sport of Blind Ice Hockey has programming in six countries including Canada, USA, England, Finland, Russia, and Sweden.
Next Steps and Future Goals:
2025 – First European Blind Hockey Summit and Training Camp (England, TBC Summer).
2025 – Three team International Blind Ice Hockey Series involving Canada, the United States, and Team World with athletes from a minimum of 4 countries.
2026 – Four Nations Cup.
2027 – First World Championships for Blind Ice Hockey.
2029 – Second World Championships for Blind Ice Hockey.
2030’s – Inclusion in Winter Paralympic Games (Salt Lake City 2034, TBD 2038)
Competitive Blind Hockey is played at the national championship level or in international competition. Currently Team Canada and Team USA are the only two national programs in the world and compete against each other annually. At this level teams are not divided based on equal levels of age, experience, or vision, but rather the coaching staff of each nation will draft the best team possible. There are technical rules used in competitive Blind Hockey competition which can be viewed in the rulebook. Most notable is the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Classification system and the International Blind Ice Hockey Federations (IBIHF) point system.
DOWNLOAD: IBIHF adapted rules for blind hockey here
IBSA CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
For competitive Blind Hockey, all athletes must comply with the International Blind Sports Federation’s (IBSA) classification eligibility standards. In the IBSA classification system, an athlete who is blind or partially sighted is classed as either a B1 – no vision, a B2 – approximately 5% functional vision or less, or a B3 – 10% functional vision or less.
