INNISFIL — For the first time ever, women will be competing in floorball at the World Games, and Emily Niskanen, who is originally from Stroud, will be among those representing Canada in the historic event in China this summer.
“I am extremely excited for August, I just recently booked my flights, which made it all seem really real,” Niskanen said. “Right now, we are in the logistics phases of everything: booking vaccinations, finding travel insurance, and applying for visas, which means we are really in the home stretch before the tournament.”
Niskanen and her coach explained in January that, despite being a national team, the squad does not receive funding from the government like other national teams because floorball is not recognized as a sport. Thus, the players on Team Canada have been fundraising to alleviate some of the financial pressures that come with international travel.
“A group of girls did run a bottle drive out of the Ottawa area a couple (of) months ago that was successful. In terms of our community, I recently had a neighbour in Stroud — Chad Emery — help run and organize a fundraiser for me at the Foodland in Stroud that was a great success,” she said. “It was a partnership with the Innisifl Food Bank where $5 from each pre-made food bank bag sold went toward the trip to China.”
“I am incredibly grateful to both Chad, the manager at Foodland, and the community for helping this event happen. We were able to raise close to $200 for the trip to China while also selling over 30 bags for the Innisfil Food Bank.”
Niskanen said that training for the World Games “has been going great,” and she's had plenty of floor time in Halifax, N.S.
“Our coach, Nicolas (Van Thielen), has also made us a spreadsheet with his expectations for the types of training sessions we should be getting in each week to keep us accountable and see what everyone else is up to, which has been great," she said.
“I just can’t wait to be there,” said Van Thielen, who also works as director of women's high performance at Floorball Canada. “We will have two very tough games to start the tournament, against Finland and Czechia, but the third game against Singapore should be quite even, I think.”
He called himself the "luckiest coach in the floorball world" and noted how motivated the players are.
“The girls will be ready; they had a very good tournament against the US team back in March, and we also went to the three-versus-three world championships in Switzerland in May,” Van Thielen said.
To support Niskanen and the team, make a donation. Companies can also sponsor the squad, which pledges to thank new sponsors through posts on social media. Sponsors will also get the option to have their logo placed on the team’s equipment in the future (printing for the World Games has already taken place).
To learn more about sponsorship incentives offered by the team, contact Van Thielen at nicolas.vanthielen@floorballcanada.org.