Aarhus hockey shortage forces 15-year-old to miss school

Freja Lyngsø, 15, sometimes misses school because limited ice time in Aarhus forces young hockey players to train early in the morning or late at night, DR reports.

Freja trains four times a week and hopes to make the national team. She and her U16 teammates either start practice at 6.15am or finish so late that she gets home close to 11pm.

The late sessions leave her short of sleep, she said, and on one day she misses some school. She then has more work to catch up on at home. Despite the strain, she has no plans to quit hockey.

Aarhus has one ice rink, and the sport’s popularity means clubs have no more training slots to offer, club chair Frederik Lundby-Ibfelt said. There is also no place for players once they are too old for the U16 team, leaving some families to consider moving to a city with a team, such as Silkeborg, Herning, Aalborg or Odense.

Aarhus officials have estimated that building another ice rink would cost at least 70 million kroner. Jesper Kjeldsen, the city’s councillor for culture and citizen services, said he supports the call for more ice but cannot currently see how to fund a new rink. The city administration and ice sports clubs are discussing whether a cheaper option could be found, such as sharing a cooling system with the existing rink.