Riikka Sallinen

Hanna-Riikka Sallinen (née Nieminen, previously Välilä, born 12 June 1973) is a Finnish retired ice hockey, bandy, rink bandy, and pesäpallo player. She is known as one of the most highly decorated and respected players to have ever competed in international women's ice hockey.[1] She currently serves as assistant coach to HV71 Dam, the SDHL club that she captained in the 2018–19 season.[2]

Riikka Sallinen
Born (1973-06-12) 12 June 1973
Jyväskylä, Finland
Height 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight 60 kg (132 lb; 9 st 6 lb)
Position Forward
Shot Right
Played for EVU Vantaa
JYP Jyväskylä
DHC Lyss
Keravan Shakers
KalPa Kuopio
Limhamn HK
HV71
National team  Finland
Playing career 1988–2019
Medal record
Women's ice hockey
Representing  Finland
Olympic Games
2018 PyeongchangTeam
1998 NaganoTeam
World Championships
2019 Finland
2017 United States
2015 Sweden
1997 Canada
1994 United States
1992 Finland
1990 Canada
IIHF European Women Championships
1995 Latvia
1993 Denmark
1989 West Germany

Sallinen played sixteen seasons with the Finnish national ice hockey team and earned two Olympic bronze medals, one World Championship silver and six bronze medals, and three European Championship gold medals. In 2007, Sallinen was one of the first two women inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame, along with defenceman Marianne Ihalainen. She was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame on 21 May 2010 in Cologne, Germany as part of the World Championship festivities; she was only the fourth woman to receive this honor.[3]

Sallinen's bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang made her the oldest player to ever win an Olympic medal in ice hockey. She was awarded the medal at age 44, 20 years after she first won a medal in the inaugural women's Olympic hockey tournament.[4]

Sallinen announced her retirement from competition in April 2019, at age 46, shortly after achieving silver at the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship.[1]

Ice hockey

Career

Sallinen was a five time Finnish Champion of the Naisten SM-sarja, in 1988–89 with Etelä-Vantaan Urheilijat (EVU), in 1993–94 with the Keravan Shakers, and in 1996–97, 1997–98, and 2015–16 with JYP Jyväskylä.

International play

Riikka Sallinen represented Finland at three IIHF Women's European Championships, eight IIHF World Women's Championships, and four Olympics. She made her international debut at the 1989 Women's European Championship.[5] In her first Olympics in 1998 she led the tournament in scoring, amassing 12 points (7 goals & 5 assists) in six games and leading the Finnish team to the bronze medal. Sallinen would also lead the Finnish national team to three European Championship titles and six IIHF World Women's Championship bronze medals and one silver.

Over her international career she would score 109 goals, 95 assists for 204 points while accumulating only 24 PIMs.[6]

In August 2013, the IIHF reported that she was attempting a comeback[7] and in December 2013, following several matches in the Naisten SM-sarja, she was selected for the Finnish women's team for the Sochi Olympics. She made the Finnish Olympic team again for the 2018 Olympics, helping Finland to a bronze medal.[4][8]

Awards and honours
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References
  1. Foster, Meredith (15 June 2019). "Team Finland legend Riikka Sallinen retires". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  2. Freijd, Johan (16 December 2019). "Riikka Sallinen ny assisterande tränare i HV71 Dam" [Riikka Sallinen new assistant coach to HV71 Dam] (in Swedish). HV71. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  3. "IIHF Hall of Fame inducts six new members". National Hockey League. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
  4. "Winter Olympics: Finland beat OAR 3–2 to claim women's ice hockey bronze". BBC. 21 February 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  5. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Riikka Nieminen-Välilä". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Full name: Hanna-Riikka Nieminen-Välilä
  6. "IIHF Hall welcomes five". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  7. Risto Pakarinen (13 August 2013). "Välilä makes comeback". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  8. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Finland Ice Hockey at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  9. Seppänen, Antti, ed. (5 February 2018). "Liiga palkitsi kauden 2017–18 parhaat – tässä palkittujen lista" [Liiga rewarded the best of the 2017-18 season- the list of award winners]. liiga.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  10. "JYP kunnioittaa Suomen menestyneimmän naisjääkiekkoilijan uraa: Riikka Sallisen pelinumero jäädytetään" [JYP honors the career of Finland's most successful women's ice hockey player: Riikka Sallinen's game number to be retired] (in Finnish). yle. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  11. Foster, Meredith (7 November 2019). "To The Rafters: JYP to retire Riikka Sallinen's number". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
Preceded by
Patrik Laine		 Winner of the President's trophy
2017–18		 Succeeded by
Kaapo Kakko
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