The 2021-2022 season was a big year for Chinese women’s ice hockey.
The Chinese team returned to the Winter Olympics for the first time in 12 years, and made it back to Division I Group A at the World Championships with an unbeaten run in Group B during an 11-year period.
Behind these achievements are the five years of persistent dedicated effort by the Shenzhen-based Kunlun Red Star (KRS) hockey club.
KRS is China’s first professional hockey club, which was founded in Longgang District in 2017 to nurture female players to represent China at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Early this year, it sent 16 players to the national team.
While talking about why Shenzhen was chosen, Ao Meng, chairwoman of KRS, explained, “We visited many city candidates but Shenzhen was the best choice, as the local government offers preferential policies and the city has a young population that would like to experience niche sports like ice hockey.”