Riikka Nieminen

Hanna- Riikka Välilä, born as Hanna- Riikka Nieminen ( born June 12, 1973 in Jyväskylä ) is a Finnish ice hockey, bandy, Rinkbandy and Pesäpallospielerin that with their biggest international success by winning the bronze medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics the Finnish national Hockey Team reached.

  • 2.1 Hockey
  • 2.2 Bandy
  • 2.3 Rinkbandy
  • 2.4 pesäpallo

Career

National Competitions

Riikka Välilä began her career in 1988 at Southern Vantaan Urheilijat in the Finnish SM- sarja Naisten. Other stations in Finland were JYP Jyväskylä, the Keravan Shakers, KalPa and the Jyväskylä Hockey Cats. They ran in a total of 116 games on, in which they scored 179 goals, 163 more prepared and thus collected a total of 342 points scorer. She led her team to a total of four Finnish championships. They also played two years abroad, in the 1992/93 season at SC Lyss in the Swiss Performance Class A and in the 2002/03 season when Limhamn HC Riksserien.

Between 1998 and 2001, she missed a lot of the games due to several knee injuries they ultimately forced to end career.

In the spring of 2013 Välilä took the ice training again and played from August 2013 JYP in the SM- sarja, to recommend themselves for the Olympic team for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Other Sports

Riikka Välilä played not only hockey, but has also been successful in other sports. She won in 1989 in addition to the Ice Hockey Championships, the national championship in Bandy, Rinkbandy and pesäpallo. Other national Rinkbandy championship title followed until the mid-1990s and a gold medal at the European Championships Rinkbandy 1989.

Internationally

Riikka Välilä completed for a total of 118 countries Finland games in which they scored 109 goals and 95 assists and 204 points scorer so collected at 24 penalty minutes. Internationally, it made ​​the first time for attention when she was top scorer at the 1997 World Ice Hockey Championship of women. A year later she repeated this success at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, where they scored 7 goals and 5 assists in just six games and won the bronze medal with Finland. It is regarded as the first European hockey player whose individual skills with those of the players from North America were comparable. Välilä ran to a total of 3 European and 4 World Championships and in 2002 took on their second Winter Olympic Games in part. They won the European Championship three times ( 1989, 1993 and 1995 ) and four bronze medals at the World Championships (1990, 1992, 1994 and 1997).

For their achievements at home and abroad Välilä was inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2010 she was accepted as a fourth woman and the first European in the IIHF Hall of Fame.

Awards and achievements

Hockey

Bandy

Rinkbandy

Pesäpallo

Private

Riikkas father Ensio won in the 1960s, the pesäpallo Championship, her brother Lasse is a Finnish professional ice hockey champion and her brother Juha pesäpallo Master.

Riikka Nieminen 2002 married the former ice hockey player Mika Välilä and bares his last name. With her husband Riikka has three children.

Finland women's national ice hockey team Women's ice hockey in Finland Switzerland women's ice hockey league 1997 IIHF Women's World Championship Nagano, Nagano 1989 IIHF European Women Championships 1990 IIHF Women's World Championship 1992 IIHF Women's World Championship 1994 IIHF Women's World Championship
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