There was a scandal at the tournament in Finland. Educated and tolerant representatives of European countries, telling us about the value of gender balance, have forgotten about it themselves.

The fact is that history is being made in the German national team right now. A girl works as an assistant to the head coach of Söderholm and, I must say, she does an excellent job with her job. The players of the German national team won two victories and lost only to Canada, so they have a great chance to reach the playoffs.

But the Slovak journalist decided to find an unusual reason for this successful performance. Wildness, and only.

Historical event

Canadian Jessica Campbell made a very rapid journey from Saskatchewan to Germany with a stopover in Sweden. She has been playing hockey since childhood, played for a team from her native region, and even managed to become the world champion among girls under 18 years old. Moreover, Jessica was the captain of that team and scored the winning goal in overtime against her sworn enemies – hockey players and the United States. So Campbell in 2010 brought the first victory for her team in the short history of the U18 World Championships.

She was forced to interrupt her playing career in 2017, and the following season she entered the headquarters of the women’s team from the Canadian Hockey League of sports schools under 18 years old. She worked there for two seasons and decided to move to Europe, being part of the Swedish women’s team Malmö Redhawks, and in the status of a playing coach. But only played five games in a season. Obviously, the coaching path seemed to her much more interesting.

Already in the spring of 2022, she was assigned to the German club Nuremberg Ice Tigers, and to the men’s team. The girl was entrusted with the area of ​​work associated with the game in the numerical majority – one of the most important components of the game.

A couple of weeks after that, Jessica was assigned to the German national team, which is headed by Toni Söderholm. The Finnish specialist has been coaching the team since 2019. At first glance, Campbell’s rapid career change seems to be accidental. But it’s not.

Tom Rowe / Photo: © Gregg Forwerck / Contributor / National Hockey League / Gettyimages.com

In the German club, she was invited to work by Tom Rowe, who heads the coaching staff of the team from Nuremberg. By the way, he is a former coach and general manager of the Florida Panthers with a strong analytical background. Apparently, Söderholm drew attention to this skill of the American, so he called Tom to his headquarters. Well, along with Rowe, the Canadian girl-coach turned out to be in the national team.

And now she is the first woman on the coaching staff of the men’s national team at the World Cup. At 29 years old.

Provocation from a Slovak journalist

Jessica’s experience in hockey is hard to underestimate. At least among women, she went through all the stages of development, and before joining the men’s team, she was engaged in individual training and set the correct skating for athletes. However, on Wednesday, after training with the German national team, a Slovak journalist decided to provoke Campbell:

– What is it like to be in a team when you are a beautiful woman, and the team is full of handsome men? Maybe you like some men more than others,” the reporter asked.

However, the coach did not appreciate the playful attitude of the press representative:

Sorry, I don’t understand what you are trying to say? This is my job and my profession. The players are doing their job. We have a strong working relationship with the players, but no more, – said the Canadian specialist

Jessica Campbell / Photo: © IMAGO / www.imago-images.de / Global Look Press

Toni Söderholm was extremely dissatisfied with this issue and noted that the inclusion of Jessica in the coaching staff is an extremely professional decision:

She is well versed in technical know-how and has done this kind of work before. She has a lot of energy, she is tirelessly looking for solutions to emerging problems,” the Finnish specialist praised his colleague.

“I form the composition according to the length of the penis”

Eh, if Imke Wübbenhorst, the first woman to become the head coach in men’s football in Germany, was at the World Ice Hockey Championship, then a reporter from Slovak television would not have seemed a little. When Imke led the Kloppenburg club from the German fifth division, the journalist asked her a provocative question – does Wübbenhorst warn the players before entering their dressing room so as not to find them naked.

And got an answer several times cooler:

“Of course I don’t. I’m a professional. I form the composition along the length of the penis, Imke surprised everyone.

Photo: © picture alliance / Contributor / picture alliance / Gettyimages.com

Seriously speaking, such expressions of openly sexist points of view look silly. World sport, including in the coaching environment, has been working for a long time and shows the absence of gender contradictions, regardless of the sport.

In the NBA, for eight years known to us, Becky Hammon successfully worked as an assistant head coach for the San Antonio Spurs (2014-2022). In the NHL, former figure skater Barbara Underhill has helped several clubs work on skating their players. Even in the Middle East, the first experience of leading a men’s team by a girl has already happened. Maha Janud, at the age of 33, coaches the footballers of the Al-Muhafaza club from Damascus (Syria).

Given all these examples and the respect for diversity and equality, including gender equality, actively promoted in the civilized world, to see such questions from representatives of the European press is, to put it mildly, surprising.