We continue to tell about the history of the emergence and stages of the formation of ice hockey in the ADIHIC countries. Kyrgyzstan is next in line.
Men’s teams appeared in the country a long time ago, back in the days of the USSR. But the first women’s teams began to appear quite recently.

In 2015, a resident of a small village in the east of the country, Salamat Abdrakhmanov, flooded an ice rink in his garden, to which he invited his neighbors to skate and play ice hockey.

Soon, he started to teach neighborhood kids to play ice hockey. At first, no more than ten children attended classes. It was very difficult to get ice hockey equipment in the countryside. The Kyrgyz diaspora from Switzerland helped with that.

Since then, not only youth and men’s teams, but also women’s teams appeared in the village. In their free time from work and study, the girls gather on the ice and train together with the guys. In winter, they train every day and boys from neighboring villages come to play with them.

This unusual experiment is carried out within the framework of a sports school. The team, which has been in existence for several years, includes girls from the village of Otradnoye and some neighboring settlements aged from 10 to 20 years. Another Kyrgyz locality, the city of Naryn, also noted a similar undertaking.

By the way, according to the 2009 census, no more than 2,000 people live in Otradnoye. Several documentaries on Youtube have also been made about this village and the phenomenon of ice hockey in it.

The Kyrgyzstan Ice Hockey Federation became a member of the IIHF in 2011 and joined the ADIHIC in 2023. In 2024, the country will host the matches of Group A of the third division of the Ice Hockey World Championship. The tournament will be held from March 10 to March 16 in Bishkek.