LILLEHAMMER – Seven months ago Argentine athlete Iara Haiek missed out on the qualification for Lillehammer 2016 in the tightest possible way. Two weeks ago she got the news that she could move into the Youth Olympics due to another player’s injury.
“I was in Canada and my mother woke me up and told me that I was going to the Winter Youth Olympic Games. I think that day was one of the best days in my life. It was waking up with very good news, I was so happy,” she said.
At the qualification event last summer, the Global Skills Challenge Summit in Vierumaki, Finland, Haiek was tied for places 15-17 with two other players and was last due to the tie-breaking criteria. 31 girls competed for the 16 places.
She had already left Vierumaki after the tests to Tampere with her father, Dicky Haiek, who is the founder of the Argentine Ice and Inline Hockey Association, to watch her brother play at the 2015 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship.
“I heard the results from my friend from Spain who competed there and that I was tied and 17th. It was hard news but I was also happy that I was able to compete. It was a good position. I thought I’d be so bad and that position gave hope. I saw that everything can happen,” the 14-year-old said.
After the news she practised a lot in Canada and travelled directly from Montreal, where her aunt lives, to Norway.
“In Buenos Aires we don’t have an ice rink like this so I’m only playing inline hockey in my country. I can’t train so well on the small rinks we have there,” Haiek said. In the Argentine capital there are only small ice rinks. The only full-size ice rink is 2,400 kilometres in direction Antarctica in Ushuaia, but it’s open ice and only available during the winter months.
“I focused on skating because that was the most difficult part for me, to change from inline skating to the ice. And I was focusing on passing precision,” she said.
Haiek finished the Women’s Skills Challenge where she started it in the seeding, in 16th place. The pass training was worth it since she finished best there, in 13th place. She’s not disappointed about the results but enjoys the one-in-a-lifetime experience.
“I don’t want to leave!” she said about Lillehammer. “I’d like to stay here but I can’t. It’s a really good experience I’m enjoying so much. I made so many friends here from other countries and also other Argentine athletes from other sports. We are like nine athletes from Argentina here and with coaches 18 but I didn’t know any of the other Argentine athletes before but now we’re good friends.”
The biggest moment for her was when she, the youngest of the 16 girls from the most exotic hockey country, entered the ice with her new friends who come from countries with bigger hockey programs and regular rinks.
“I couldn’t believe that I actually touched the ice here with my skates and my jersey of Argentina at the Youth Olympic Games. I really like that we’re altogether here. We’re athletes from so many different countries in the Skills Challenge, we compete together, think the same way, are friends,” Haiek said.
Last year she had another ice hockey experience when she played with the women’s national team at the Pan-American Ice Hockey Tournament in Mexico City.
“I remember it well. We finished fourth of five teams but we won the first game against Brazil 3-2. It was a new experience for the girls because they changed from inline to the ice but they adapted well. I had an assist on the first goal against Brazil and scored the second. It was very cool and emotional to win and hug the girls,” she said.
Haiek doesn’t have a specific goal on the ice, her biggest wish is to grow with the sport in Argentina and develop ice hockey. It must be in the genes. But first she wants to enjoy the remaining days of her Youth Olympic dream. And in June another Pan-American Ice Hockey Tournament is planned in Mexico.
MARTIN MERK |
