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 SPORTSTuesday 4 April 2017

Females are facing an off-ice fight at all levels of hockey 

LARRY LAGE                         ganization based in Sault      limited options. They can      about 13.                                                               In the same week that
AP Hockey Writer                   Ste. Marie, Michigan, par-     drive 2-plus hours, each       “The rule hasn’t gone into                                              USA Hockey gave in to
PLYMOUTH, Michigan (AP)            ticipated in the state’s Tier  way, to join a 12U team in     effect yet and we want to                                               demands from its top-cal-
— The best women’s hock-           II 14-and-under tourna-        Kalkaska, Michigan; play       see what’s going to hap-                                                iber women, females in
ey players in the U.S. can         ment with just 11 girls that   with 12U boys in their area;   pen,” Wright said in a tele-                                            the  sport  had a setback
now make a living playing          were mostly from Canada        participate in house hock-     phone interview Saturday                                                when the University of
the  sport  they love thanks       and 12 years old or young-     ey with girls just learning    night.                                                                  North Dakota eliminated
to a landmark agreement            er. Beginning next season a    how to skate; or quit play-                                                                            its women’s hockey team.
with USA Hockey reached                                                                            “We think more good                                                   Eight players from the pro-
after a threat to boycott                                                                                                                                                gram represented three
the world championship.            United States goalie Nicole Nensley looks skyward after the team defeated Canada 2-0 in a IIHF                                        countries in the 2014 Olym-
The deal will likely help their    Women’s World Championship hockey tournament game, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Plymouth,                                               pics, including Monique
counterparts north of the          Mich.                                                                                                                                 Lamoureux-Morando, who
border make more mon-                                                                                                                                                    plays defense for the U.S.
ey in their next Olympic                                                                                                                               Associated Press  Lamoureux-Morando, who
agreement with Hockey                                                                                                                                                    was a volunteer assistant
Canada.                            USA Hockey rule states, no     ing the sport.                 than bad will come up this,                                             coach for the program last
Even those who will ben-           player 12 years or younger     “It’s heartbreaking to tell    but we’ll review this over                                              season, said players on the
efit, though, acknowledge          is eligible to play on a team  the girls I don’t know what    time and we’ll see how it                                               team found out about the
the off-ice fight isn’t over.      intending or declared to       our team will look like next   changes the landscape of                                                decision on Twitter.
At every level of female           compete in district or na-     year,” McCormick said.         the game.”                                                              “To have that happen and
hockey, from pre-teen girls        tional championships.          Kristen Wright, USA Hock-      Given the chance to com-                                                then the way in which they
to college to post-gradu-          Malory McCormick, who          ey’s manager of girls’ play-   ment on this story with a                                               found out that their team
ate players, there are ob-         coached the Lakers at this     er development, said the       conversation or email,                                                  was cut is just in my opin-
stacles.                           year’s tournament, said        new rule was put in place      Michigan Amateur Hock-                                                  ion very unacceptable,”
“Women’s hockey has                the girls on her team that     for safety and develop-        ey Association President                                                Lamoureux-Morando said.
come a long way with the           are not old enough to play     ment reasons because girls     George Atkinson repeat-                                                 At the next level of wom-
amount of teams that are           14U hockey next year have      usually hit a growth spurt at  edly declined on Sunday.                                                en’s hockey, a professional
popping up and support                                                                                                                                                   league in Canada and an-
and visibility,” said Meghan                                                                                                                                             other in the U.S. are trying
Duggan, captain of the                                                                                                                                                   to make it independently.
Americans’ team playing                                                                                                                                                  At least some women who
in the world championship.                                                                                                                                               play for both leagues wish
“I think it has a long way                                                                                                                                               the five-team Canadian
to go, and I’m excited to                                                                                                                                                Women’s Hockey League
push it ahead.                                                                                                                                                           would merge with the four-
I’m certainly proud to be                                                                                                                                                team National Women’s
someone standing up for                                                                                                                                                  Hockey League to be-
women’s hockey and re-                                                                                                                                                   come one.
ally trying to get it to move
forward. I look forward                                                                                                                                                        That might help
to see how far women’s                                                                                                                                                   the sport gain support from
hockey is going go.”                                                                                                                                                     the NHL, which could po-
In a border town about                                                                                                                                                   tentially financially back
300 miles north of suburban                                                                                                                                              the best women in the
Detroit, a new USA Hockey                                                                                                                                                game as the NBA does
rule appears to be having                                                                                                                                                with the WNBA. The CWHL
unintended consequenc-                                                                                                                                                   pays players with perfor-
es for girls trying to find their                                                                                                                                        mance and playoff bonus-
stride.                                                                                                                                                                  es and hasn’t delivered on
The Soo Lady Lakers, an or-                                                                                                                                              a promise to give them a
                                                                                                                                                                         salary. q

IAAF says it has been hacked, athlete medical info accessed

MONACO (AP) — The gov-             athletes to take substanc-     The IAAF said it had been      sion,” the company said.                                                could to put new systems
erning body of track and           es that would normally be      in contact with athletes       “Throughout the investiga-                                              in place,” Coe said. “The
field has been hacked by           banned, and are used by        who have applied for TUEs      tion, the IAAF have under-                                              athletes had the right to
Fancy Bears, the group             athletes around the world.     since 2012.                    stood the importance and                                                expect that information
that previously attacked           “Our first priority is to the  Context Information Secu-      impact of the attack and                                                given to us to be securely
the World Anti-Doping              athletes who have pro-         rity, a British security com-  have provided us compre-                                                housed. Unfortunately, it’s
Agency.                            vided the IAAF with infor-     pany, said in a statement      hensive assistance.”                                                    not the first time. Other or-
The IAAF said Monday it            mation that they believed      released by the IAAF that it   Coe, speaking in Aarhus,                                                ganizations have been the
believes the hack “has             would be secure and con-       discovered the attack.         Denmark, ahead of a con-                                                subject of this and we do
compromised athletes’              fidential,” IAAF President     “In January 2017, the IAAF     ference of global Olym-                                                 of course deplore that, but
Therapeutic Use Exemp-             Sebastian Coe said in a        contacted Context Infor-       pic sports officials, said the                                          it was very important that
tion (TUE) applications            statement. “They have our      mation Security to con-        IAAF is using the “world’s                                              we discussed that with the
stored on IAAF servers”            sincerest apologies and        duct a proactive and           best people” to make the                                                athletes.” WADA has pre-
during an unauthorized re-         our total commitment to        thorough technical inves-      organization’s computers                                                viously said Fancy Bears
mote access to its network         continue to do everything      tigation across its systems,   safe.                                                                   originate from Russia, cit-
on Feb. 21.                        in our power to remedy         which led to the discovery     “We have now done                                                       ing information from law
TUEs are permissions for           the situation.”                of a sophisticated intru-      everything we possibly                                                  enforcement agencies.q
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