This Q&A is a follow-up to Friday’s feature on three-time Olympian, former University of Manitoba Bison and recent Calgary Inferno CWHL draftee Venla Hovi.
I caught up with Hovi by telephone this summer while I was vacationing in France and she was training at her summer home in Kangasala, Finland. It was an internationally themed conversation and a fascinating look into Hovi’s passion for improving the global state of women’s hockey.
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We also touched on Hovi’s stubbornness, her love of Winnipeg, and what it means to make a living doing the thing you are most passionate about. Hovi, who was drafted in the sixth round of this summer’s CWHL draft, is skating with the Bisons in Winnipeg before heading to Calgary for training camp.
Questions and responses are edited for clarity and concision.
What are your first memories playing hockey?
This I actually don’t remember. Apparently I started skating when I was 2 and I ended up getting figure skates as a Christmas gift. I tried them on once and I took them off and threw them away and just wanted the same type of skates that my brother had. It was kind of a short period of time that I used the figure skates and then instantly, basically, learned how to skate. I was 2 years old.
The things I remember? Outdoor rinks. Just playing hours every day and my mom having to come and get me to come home. I could just play endlessly, every day, outside. That’s my biggest memory.
How did you become a Manitoba Bison?
It was after the Sochi Olympics (in 2014.)
I was just, I was just pretty drained and I was working and studying and obviously put a lot of hours into making that team to play in the Olympics. I was like, “OK this is it, I might not play anymore” or “I’ll just take some time off now and see how I feel after.” After I caught up on studies and all the rest of it.
And then during that year, there were a couple of schools that contacted me. They were all from Canada West. I was like, “I’m actually not playing at the moment – I’m taking a year off.”
But then, I was like, “Oh my god there’s actually a chance to go play there if I still continue playing.” I knew I didn’t want to continue playing in Finland anymore. I’d just played there for so long and I’d seen that league and I had kind of seen that league and I knew I wasn’t motivated enough to continue playing in the same league.
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I was at that point already older than most CIS players. But I was like, “There’s no age limit, why am I thinking about this?” So I just started chatting with all of the schools and I contacted other schools that didn’t even contact me and then honestly had the best feeling of the coach, Jon Rempel. I Skyped all the coaches and had multiple different chats and then I decided on Winnipeg.
A lot of people were like, “Don’t go to Winnipeg! Why would you go there?”
And then, as I am as a person, I was like, “You know what? I’m going to go to Winnipeg because you’re telling me not to go.”
How do you feel about Winnipeg now?
It feels like my home.
I feel like the most important thing for me has been the people.
I actually noticed that I know a lot about the city compared to people who’ve lived there their whole lives. But it’s probably because I came there sort of as a tourist and I like to go around and see new places. I call myself a Winnipegger now I guess.
There’s great cafes there, there are so many good restaurants – I love food so I would say cafes and food are my number one thing in Winnipeg especially because there are so many people from all around the world. They bring their food with them to Winnipeg so I feel like that’s definitely one thing you have to experience when being there.
I enjoy all of the parks in the city. I like the Assiniboine. I like using Sundays for biking when there’s no cars allowed on Wellington and being outdoors as much as possible. I take the buses everywhere so for people that are against public transportation, you can get anywhere you want just using the bus. I’m a big public transportation supporter.
Those would be my number one things. There’s a lot of good festivals – I love the Fringe Fest that I missed out on now coming home and other things like that.
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Going back to how hard you were working and studying while being an Olympian at the same time. Are we “there” yet? Can an elite female hockey player make a good living playing hockey in 2018?
We’re not there yet, no. I wouldn’t say a good living. You can find those couple of places where you can maybe make it work. This upcoming year, our full Team Finland – every member, every player of the team – we got funded through the Olympic Committee in Finland. For the first time, we’ll get some money every month. But that’s only just the beginning. Either the team will have to pay something more – the club team where we play for – or it’s going to have to be a part-time job or something like that … unless you have really good personal sponsors or things like that. We’re definitely not there yet.
What needs to change and what are the steps?
I think a really good example is from the Swedish league right now. I think they’re really moving in the right direction at the moment. From what I know, the men’s teams have started really, really sponsoring the women’s teams and starting to see the value that the women’s teams are bringing. They can bring more value – not just value in thoughts, you know, girls playing hockey, but they can actually start bringing more money to the club, too.
If you put a little bit of money in, they can actually bring more money in. A lot of those teams in Sweden have started to pay their players. Now players can only have maybe part-time jobs. They offer tons of ice time and opportunities to get better. I don’t know if there’s a better answer but it obviously takes a lot of effort and the men’s teams are definitely needed in terms of getting that rolling.
I’ve always thought of the Nordic countries as a little more progressive. What about the NWHL and CWHL in North America?
Those leagues have to unite. It blows my mind that it hasn’t happened yet. Having that women’s actual NHL league with the best players in the world … We need that. That would be so interesting and there would be tons and tons of people following that league for sure.
You could bring in all of the best players from Europe playing against the best North Americans and even people from other continents, too. That way, all of those players develop. You can play against better and better players and then against them at practice, too, so you’d obviously get better all of the time. So that’s definitely the number one thing.
In Finland, the situation is not nearly where Sweden is. I wouldn’t say that it’s Europe or the Nordic countries where that’s happening because honestly, at the moment, things are getting pretty good in Sweden but there’s tons of players from Finland going to the Swedish league now because the Finnish league has less to offer.
Does prioritizing women’s hockey need to happen for adults first – so the whole world can see – or for youth – for the sake of development?
I don’t know – that’s a really tough question. I feel like they’re all equally as important. I feel like there’s definitely the most effort put into the youth right now and little girls playing and in Finland, growing the women’s hockey and girls’ hockey and having them have their own teams and things like that. At the same time, those players need to look up to someone. It’s kind of like a cycle. That’s such a big question that it’s hard to answer quickly like this.
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At the same time, I would add that even going into the Olympics – this is just to compare – having Team Canada fully professionals this year, having Team USA fully professionals, and I think most of Team Russia are professionals and then our team had, I think, three professional players. Most girls doing school, working… Myself, I worked two jobs. I did full-time school and then I played … So that it would be equal for everybody.
I get so many questions always: “When are you going to catch up on the North Americans?”
That’s when one league for everyone – all of the best players in the world – would become so crucial, because then everybody would always get better. And you would get more used to the speed and not just going into a tournament or the Olympics and then, first period, kind of getting used to the speed again and then it’s too late to win.
It’s not that people around the world couldn’t do the same but having very uneven opportunities in terms of training and preparing. Especially going into Switzerland and all of those countries – you just can’t be as good as the leagues in Canada or the States when you have a hundred times more players. I feel like it would be really, really important to have that one professional league where all of the best players can play.
What do you know today, at this stage of your career, that you didn’t when you played in your first Olympics for Finland in 2010?
Oh wow. That’s a deep question. Wow. I feel like I would have to think about that. I honestly feel like, even just five years ago I’m a completely – obviously I’m still myself and I have those certain things that will always kind of make me who I am – but at the same time, I’m just a completely different person in a way. I don’t know.
One thing that I think about a lot is when I look back into my career, always having people around me, especially in Finland where women’s hockey wasn’t that big at the time… Whenever I was like, “I’m going to go to the Olympics” and all this stuff… And then, year after year, (people) have those certain expectations about what’s supposed to happen in life. I’m not talking about hockey or athletics. I was never a pro player and people expect me to do other things, right?
All of those questions: “When are you going to quit? Are you still going to play? Why would you do that?” Always just fighting through that. Year after year. Where there’s more people doubting you and more people telling you what you should do and how life is supposed to work.
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And then fighting through that to the point where people are like “No! You can’t quit yet. No, don’t quit!” It’s kind of funny to notice. Like, how did it turn out to be like this? Because I’m actually getting kind of old and I’ve considered ending my career myself now and now people are like, “No! What else are you going to do?”
No more “Get a real job!” or “When are you going to settle down?”
Exactly. Yeah, things like that which are super rude to say to a person that has a passion for something and is so happy to play. What else matters in life other than being happy and doing the things you really love to do and really developing women’s hockey. That itself is something great to do.
I feel like this doesn’t answer your question and it’s not really about myself but, especially playing with the Bisons and with younger players, and noticing how much pressure there is from the outside – what you’re “supposed to do” in your life. Now I’ve kind realized how worth it it was to just stick with what I wanted to do. I feel like it’s more common that people go with what everybody else wants them to do than actually doing what you enjoy doing.
Everybody has an opinion about how life is supposed to go.
Or there’s this hypothetical idea of when you’re supposed to be done with school and then you’re supposed to get a job and then all the rest of it. Just because I haven’t earned millions playing hockey doesn’t mean that…
There’s so many things that women’s hockey players have to go through and grow overall as a person just to be able to play high level hockey that it’s amazing in itself.
We’ve talked about developing women’s hockey. You’ve studied teaching English as a second language and you’ve already started coaching hockey. Is post-playing Venla Hovi likely to be in some kind of mentorship role?
For sure. First of all, I would really love to teach. I would definitely want to find an ESL job – hopefully in Winnipeg – at some point. On the side, I would like to start my own hockey business where it wouldn’t necessarily just be training on the ice but more so the mentoring side of it. I feel like the mental side of hockey is ignored in so many ways.
You might have players that are better than you on the ice but then, when things get tough, you can beat them by being mentally strong. Also, utilizing that multi-sport athlete idea. I hate the thought of putting little girls or boys just doing one sport because I feel like they will become better players doing multiple different sports and better overall athletes.
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That’s kind of my thought process in what I would love to do and bring up when I have my own hockey company – teaching and coaching. I guess I’ll find out.
What do you want your long-term impact to be?
I would hope it would be the thought of making “impossible” into “possible.” Pursuing my education and also playing high level sports and working at the same time. Not forgetting where that hard work and passion can bring you.
At the same time, I feel like it’s a cliché to say that I’m such a hard worker so I am going to say that I’ve honestly enjoyed doing what I’ve done in the past couple of years so much that it hasn’t felt as hard as it was. Everyone’s always like “how do you do that? How do you go from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. going from place A to B” but every single thing I did was something I enjoyed doing.
Or even just appreciating the opportunity of being able to play. I’ve been to countries where girls would love to just play hockey and do nothing else and they just can’t or they’re not allowed to practice as much as they want. For any female player in Finland or Canada, we’re so lucky to be able to decide about our own world or our own life or just enjoy playing.
I feel like this is going back to what I said before – how important it is to do the thing you love.
(Top photo: David E. Klutho-USA TODAY Sports)