- Great Britain can legitimately claim to have invented ice hockey, and even won gold at the 1936 Winter Olympics -- but its modern-day heroes are struggling to uphold that heritage in the face of adversity.
When some British solders
first ventured on to the ice in Ontario, Canada in the mid-19th century
to play a modified version of field hockey, they could never have
dreamed a multibillion-dollar business would be the legacy.
However, while the sport
has flourished in North America and other European nations, in the UK it
battles a chronic lack of funding and fights for snippets of media
coverage in a country where football dominates the back pages.
Team GB has not played in
the Winter Games since 1948, and suffered another heartbreaking failure
last week in the final round of qualifying in Riga.
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Despite the setbacks, stalwart player David Clarke remains optimistic for the future of the sport.
"Great Britain isn't
renowned for its ice hockey talent, but it's growing and we've made a
great account for ourselves over the last four or five years," Clarke
told CNN's Human to Hero series.
"So, I think gradually we are getting more respect but with that comes expectation."
A squad coached by
Scotsman Tony Hand, who briefly played alongside Wayne Gretzky in the
NHL, lost to 11th-ranked hosts Latvia, France and Kazakhstan, ending
their hopes of going to Sochi in 2014.
"We gave a decent
account of ourselves, but it would have been nice to have been able to
get together as a team for more than just two days to properly prepare,"
said Clarke.
Andy French, general
secretary of Ice Hockey UK, which now boasts over 10,000 registered
players, is dismayed they receive no funding from the British sports
authorities.
"Extra backing would
create more revenue to enable all our teams from junior to senior level
to have four international breaks per year to prepare for world
championships, to bring on board a sports psychologist, team
nutritionist, better preparation," he told CNN.
Clarke could have
followed Hand over the Atlantic to try his hand in the toughest league
of all, but decided to stay home after becoming a father at the age of
18.
He also had trials for his local professional football club Peterborough, but chose hockey.
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