The individual Skills Challenge for women and men will be held for the very first time at Olympic Games. In this event, the best 15 female and 15 male athletes from nations other than the ones in the tournaments are allowed to compete, plus athletes from the host country Austria. The participants were qualified from a global qualification program based on a series of individual skill tests designed by the IIHF. The qualification came to an end in July 2011 in Vierumäki, Finland.

The following Skills Challenge competitions will be held at the Youth Olympics:

1. Fastest Lap
2. Shooting Accuracy
3. Skating Agility
4. Hardest Shot
5. Passing Precision
6. Puck Control

The Skills Challenge tests take place during the 2012 Youth Olympic Winter Games at the Tyrolean Ice Arena in Innsbruck, Austria. The events will be made up of two phases: the Qualification and the Grand Final. All the skill tests will be conducted on a head-to-head, knockout basis, until a winner is declared and the participants will be seeded for each test. Players will earn points for their finishing position during each test.

The top-8 female and top-8 male players from the Qualification stage will progress to compete in the Grand Final.

During the Skills Challenge Grand Final players of each gender will compete for final individual rankings and medals.
 

The Men and Women competitions will be operated during the same ice session for both the Qualification and Grand Final phases.

Qualification Phase: Monday, 16 January 2012, 16:30-20:30
Grand Final: Thursday, 19 January 2012, 18:00-20:00
 

Female

Male

Country

Kathrine Gale

Lewis Hook

Great Britain

Agnese Tartaglione

Italy

Fanni Gasparics

Attila Kovacs

Hungary

Libby Jean Hay

Callum Burns

New Zealand

Akane Deguchi

Seiya Furukawa

Japan

Sharnita Crompton

Sam Hodic

Australia

Victoria Hummel

Stephan Gaffal

Austria

Julie Zwarthoed

Guus Simons

Netherlands

Jiayue Sun

Liu Qing

China

Morgane Rihet

Thibaut Colombin

France

Yeon Jung Lee

Ji Hyun Cho

Korea

Irene Senac

Paul Cerda

Spain

Noemi Ballo

Andrei Sotir

Romania

Renee De Wolf

Belgium

Ursa Pazlar

Cuvan Primoz

Slovenia

Augusts Vasilonoks

Latvia

Alexei Dashkevich

Belarus

Matija Milicic

Croatia

The following six tests will be conducted. Find below descriptions, illustrations and videos from the qualification event. For more sport-technical information download the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games Skills Challenge Test Operations document here. (PDF, 1 MB)
 

• Pylons are placed over the, Skill Test 1, dots on the ice
• The two pylons placed on the centre red line, on both sides of the rink, forms the start/finish line
• All players sit on the benches
• Players will start from the start/finish line on both sides of the rink
• Players must start behind the start/finish line
• This test is timed
• The first pair of players will be called to the start line
• The two (2) players will skate at the same time
• The test begins on the whistle
• The players will begin skating backwards in a counter-clockwise direction
• When the player has completed half a lap they will pivot from backwards to forwards
• The pivot must be performed either at or after the centre red line
• The time will stop once any part of the player’s body (not including stick) crosses the start/finish line from which they started

• Use spray paint to draw a line connecting the 3, Skill Test 2/4, dots on the ice
• Pylons are placed on the ends of the line to form the shooting line
• One set of 4 breakable targets are placed into each the net , 1 target per corner
• The shooter is positioned behind the shooting line
• Two (2) passers (coaches) are positioned behind the goal line 5 metres to either side of the net with pucks
• This test is timed
• The first pair of players will be called to the shooting line
• Two (2) players will shoot at the same time
• The test begins on the whistle
• The passers will pass the pucks alternatively to the shooter
• The shooter receives the passes one at a time and shoots at the targets
• The shooter that hits all four targets in the shortest time is the winner

• Pylons are placed over the Skill Test 3, dots on the ice
• Paint the start/finish line between the two dots across the top of the faceoff circle
• Players will start from behind the start/finish line
• This test is timed
• The test begins on the whistle
• The player skates forward towards pylon 1
• At pylon 1 pivots forward to backward
• Skates backwards along the outside to Pylon 2
• Player pivots at Pylon 2 from backward to forward
• The player skates diagonally towards Pylon 3 and pivots from forward to backward
• Skates backwards along the outside to Pylon 4
• At Pylon 4 the player pivots backward to forward and skates forward to goal line
• Stops and skates forward to the start/finish line Start/Finish Line

• Use spray paint to draw a line connecting the 3, Skill Test 2/4, dots on the ice
• Pylons are placed on the ends of the line to form the shooting line
• The radar/speed gun is placed to measure the speed of all the players’ shots
• The exact placement radar/speed gun is undetermined at the moment
• Group of pucks located on the Blue Line
• One puck is placed behind the shooting line
• Two players compete head to head at each end of the ice
• One player at a time shoots the stationary puck from the shooting line
• Each player attempts 2 shots
• The player can skate towards the puck before shooting
• They must skate from inside the near blue line
• All shots must hit the net to count
• Both shots are registered by radar in kilometres per hour
• The fastest registered shot of two (2) attempts will be counted
• The player with the fastest recorded shot wins

• 5 targets, are placed over the, Skill Test 5, dots on the ice
• An obstacle (hockey stick) is placed on the ice, over the test 5 dots, between the passer targets 2 and 5
• Pucks are behind the blue line in the centre of the ice
• The blue line marks the passing line
• The passer stands behind the passing line
• The test starts on the whistle
• The passer has to hit each of the targets in order 1 to 5
• The passer must successfully hit a target before moving to the next
• At target 2 and 5 the passes must go over the obstacle (hockey stick)
• The test continues until one players hits all 5 targets
• The passer that hits all 5 targets in the shortest time is the winner
• This test is a limited timed test of 60 seconds
• If time limit is passed the number of targets and passes will count

• Pylons (32) are placed over the, Skills Test 6 dots, on the ice
• Goal line at one end of the ice marks the start line
• Goal line at the opposite end of the ice is the finish line
• Players will start the start line
• This test is timed
• Both players begin with their feet behind the start line
• The test begins on the whistle
• The player skates straight forward with the puck towards the line of 4 pylons
• The player skates through the 4 pylons in a slalom pattern
• In the Neutral Zone the player goes to the right pylon of the first pair
• The player weaves through the 3 pairs of pylons
• Players always begin with the right pylon
• After the last pair of pylons, the player skates forward to the 6 remaining pylons
• While straddling the pylons the player stickhandles the puck through the 6 pylons
• The players then skate across the finish line to complete the test