Rinkball

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Rinkball was discovered in the 1960’s in Sweden.

In the 1970’s rinkball was originally played by locals, but expanded to a bigger and better environment. Over one hundred teams starting competing with one another on weekends. Tournaments were created soon after that, and became popular. Rinkball was much safer then ice hockey and bandy. Most players spent countless days and hours playing this sport just to spend time with their friends. People from all over the world would travel to play this game for on average two days a weekend. During the tournaments, players that lost still stayed for the entire game because it was very enjoyable. In 1984 this sport started to go international, with the first match between Finland and Sweden. The International Rinkball Federation includes Russia, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Switzerland, Hungary and Finland. The Finnish Rinkball Federation has 1000 teams, including women, men and children. The men play with eight divisions and the women play with two divisions. There are three thousand different children of all ages that also play as well. The First World Championship Games for men was held in Omsk, Russia. Over time the rink ball sticks have improved allowing players to hit faster and harder. As time went on, tournaments were being televised because of the popularity. It was very hard to see in the beginning because of the orange ball. The color of the ball then changed to blue where it was more visible on television. The Rinkball League in Finland published a magazine called "Liiga Extra", which talked about the tournaments involved in this sport. Rinkball was introduced in the Olympics the countries involved were Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Hungary, Holland, Canada and the United States.

References:[[ http://www.kaukalopalloliitto.fi/rinkball.html]]