Beijing 2022: IIHF’s Aivaz Omorkanov aims to clean up Asian ice hockey and lift fortunes of underachieving regional teams
- The youngest vice-president ever elected to the IIHF has his work cut out for him with Asian teams considered the paupers of global ice hockey
- Gregory Smyth, who runs Hong Kong’s largest ice hockey organisation, the China Hockey Group, says he is excited to work with the new IIHF boss for the region
Aivaz Omorkanov roared into the International Ice Hockey Federation in September on the back of a fiery speech in which he quoted Martin Luther King Jnr and talked about completely overhauling the sport in Asia and Oceania.
The youngest vice-president ever elected to the IIHF, Omorkanov, 25, who hails from Kyrgyzstan and played for his country’s national team, finds himself thrust into the limelight at a supercharged point in time with a number of underachieving associations falling under his watch.
Omorkanov ousted former Asia and Oceania vice-president Thomas Wu, who is from Hong Kong and held the position from 2012 until 2021. His speech directly attacked Wu’s alleged lack of progress in the region, with Omorkanov saying: “The list of shortcomings and the chances missed over the past number of years is extremely high”. Wu, in a written response to the Post, declined to comment on Omorkanov’s remark.
Omorkanov wants to raise the bar high with an ambitious plan in his first 100 days which involves auditing all the member associations.
Hong Kong is likely to be part of his clean-up. The local scene has been plagued by infighting between the community and the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association.
Gregory Smyth, who runs the China Hockey Group, the largest association which encompasses the bulk of players in Hong Kong, said he was excited to work with Omorkanov.
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“We share the same vision as Aivaz on the development and potential for ice hockey in Asia,” said Smyth. “We look forward to working closely with Aivaz and the IIHF to realise these goals over the next few years.”
Smyth and Guy Cloutier, a Canadian who has built winter sports arenas and infrastructure in Asia for decades, said Omorkanov had his work cut out for him, though noting his fiery speech was a good first step.
“There is definitely a new direction [Omorkanov] can take moving forward,” said Cloutier. “But he needs to get the right people involved and work with the right people, and that has not happened [in Asia] in the past.”
Ice hockey has never been popular in Asia or Oceania, playing catch-up to sports such as football and basketball, however, Omorkanov said there were some success stories.
“Japan has been an IIHF member since 1930, but the first and only Olympic ice hockey medal that team won happened at the Youth Olympics in 2020 and came from the women’s team,” said Omorkanov in an email interview with the Post.
“When they qualified for the Olympics in Sochi, it set off huge interest in the women’s game, with Japanese companies stepping up to support the national team players with part-time jobs to enable them to train in preparation, which has helped Japan stay at the top level of the women’s game.”
He said the same thing happened in South Korea. When the country was given hosting rights for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, it “threw itself completely into an intense four-year preparation for those Games”. South Korea’s women’s team are ranked 17th and their men’s team are 19th, the highest of any traditional Asian nation.
“Their women’s team could have been a huge success story,” said Cloutier, who was approached by the administration to help grow the game in China, “but they blew that one”. The Chinese women’s team are ranked 20th in the world and finished fourth at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan. They have since fallen steadily in the rankings owing to a number of factors including mismanagement and a lack of funding, said Cloutier.
Omorkanov said he still hoped Beijing 2022 could become a “springboard” for ice hockey in the region.
“Keeping in mind that each nation may need a different approach to development, I will nevertheless work with all Asia and Oceania members to share ideas and best practices, and together find ways to share our expertise whether it is with playing, coaching, officiating, or development.”
