US Women's Hockey Team Will Not Play in World Championships

In less than a month, the world will be coming to Plymouth, Michigan for the 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championships and the best of the best will be competing for gold.

Except for the US Women’s National Team.

The players revealed in a statement this morning that they will not be participating in the upcoming World Championships unless changes are made by USA Hockey.

Here is the statement below, posted by the individual players on Instagram and Twitter:

“The members of the US Women’s National Hockey Team announce that we will not be playing in the 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championship (in Plymouth, Michigan) due to year-long stalled negotiations with USA Hockey over fair wages and equitable support.

We have asked USA Hockey for equitable support with regard to our male counterparts, as required by the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act. Specifically, we have asked for equitable support in the areas of financial compensation, youth team development, equipment, travel expenses, hotel accommodations, meals, staffing, transportation, marketing and publicity.

The goals of our requests are to achieve fair treatment from USA Hockey, to initiate the appropriate steps to correct the outlined issues and to move forward with a shared goal of promoting and growing the girls and women in our sport while representing the United States in future competitions, including the Women’s World Championship.

Putting on the USA jersey represents the culminations of many years of hard work and sacrifice that reflect our love of both hockey and country. In making these requests, we are simply asking USA Hockey to comply with the law. #BeBoldForChange.”

No other statements have been made at this time by individual players or USA Hockey.

The US Women’s Hockey team is not the only women’s national team to strike, the US Women’s Soccer team went on strike prior to the 2016 Olympic Games before a judge ruled that they could not strike during the Olympics and long time team member Alex Morgan told The Guardian that “We’re not scared” to strike again to achieve equal pay and support from their national governing body.

The members of Team USA either play in the National Women's League where the highest paid player is paid $13,000 or playing in college where they are not compensated for their playing.

This announcement comes less than a month before Team USA, along with 7 other teams, are set to compete at the 2017 Women’s World Championships in Plymouth beginning on March 31st.