Riikka Sallinen
Finnish multi-sport athlete and ice hockey pioneer.
Riikka Sallinen (born Hanna-Riikka Nieminen on 12 June 1973, also known as Riikka Välilä) is a retired Finnish athlete who played ice hockey, bandy, rinkball, and pesäpallo. She ranks among the most decorated players in international ice hockey history. Over sixteen seasons with Finland’s women’s national team, she collected two Olympic bronze medals, one World Championship silver and six bronze medals, and three European Championship gold medals.
Sallinen spent eleven seasons in Finland’s Naisten SM-sarja, winning five Finnish championships: with Etelä-Vantaan Urheilijat in 1988–89, the Keravan Shakers in 1993–94, and JYP Jyväskylä Naiset in 1996–97, 1997–98, and 2015–16. In 135 regular-season games she scored 201 goals and 194 assists (395 points), averaging 2.93 points per game, and added 86 points (36 goals, 50 assists) in 41 playoff games. She joined Sweden’s HV71 in 2016, captaining the team from 2017 to 2019 and totaling 119 points in 92 games. During the 2018–19 playoffs she received a four-game suspension for bodychecking a Leksands IF player. She retired in April 2019 at age 46, shortly after winning silver at the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship.
Internationally, Sallinen debuted at the 1989 Women’s European Championship and played in the first IIHF-sanctioned Women’s World Championship in 1990. She led all scorers at the 1994 World Championship, earning Best Forward honors, and again topped scoring at the 1997 World Championship, becoming the first woman named a top-three forward in three consecutive World Championships. At the 1998 Olympics she led the tournament in scoring with 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists) and helped Finland win bronze. She also led Finland to three European Championship titles, six World Championship bronze medals, and one silver. In August 2013 the IIHF reported her comeback attempt; by December 2013, after several Naisten SM-sarja games, she was selected for the Sochi Olympics. She made the 2018 Olympic team, winning bronze at age 44—making her the oldest ice hockey player to win an Olympic medal, surpassing Teemu Selänne’s record set in 2014 at age 43. Sallinen’s first Olympic medal came twenty years earlier in the inaugural women’s tournament.
Quick Facts
- Halloffame
- 2022
- Birth Date
- 1973-06-12
- Birth Place
- Jyväskylä, Finland
- Height M
- 1.63
- Weight Kg
- 60
- Position
- Forward
- Shoots
- Right
- Played For
- EVU Vantaa · JYP Jyväskylä · DHC Lyss · Shakers Kerava · KalPa Kuopio · Limhamn HK · HV71 · IF Troja/Ljungby
- Coached For
- HV71
- Sex
- f
- Ntl Team
- FIN
- Career Start
- 1988–2003 / 2013
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Sallinen made her international debut at the 1989 Women's European Championship and was a member of Team Finland during the first IIHF-sanctioned international Women's World Ice Hockey Championship in 1990. She led all players in scoring at the 1994 IIHF Women's World Championship and was named the tournament's Best Forward. After leading all players in scoring at the 1997 IIHF Women's World Championship, she became the first woman to be named a top-3 forward in three consecutive World Championships. In her first Olympics in 1998 she led the tournament in scoring, amassing 12 points (7 goals & 5 assists) in six games and leading the Finnish team to the bronze medal. Sallinen would also lead the Finnish national team to three European Championship titles and six IIHF World Women's Championship bronze medals and one silver. In August 2013, the IIHF reported that she was attempting a comeback and in December 2013, following several matches in the Naisten SM-sarja, she was selected for the Finnish women's team for the Sochi Olympics. She made the Finnish Olympic team again for the 2018 Olympics, helping Finland to a bronze medal. She scored 4 points in 7 games at the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship as Finland won their first silver medal in history. During the tournament, she averaged 19:58 time-on-ice, second on the team. The logo for the Championship, held in Finland, was designed by Michelle Karvinen in tribute to her career.
Reader's Guide
Sallinen's bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang made her the oldest player to ever win an Olympic medal in ice hockey, replacing her compatriot Teemu Selänne who set the record at the 2014 Winter Olympics after winning bronze in the men's ice hockey tournament at age 43. Sallinen was awarded the medal at age 44, twenty years after she first won an Olympic medal in the inaugural women's Olympic hockey tournament. In 2007, Sallinen was one of the first two women inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame, along with defenceman Marianne Ihalainen. She was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame on 21 May 2010 in Cologne, Germany as part of the World Championship festivities; she was only the fourth woman and the first European woman to receive this honor. She is currently the leading all-time European scorer in World Championships and Olympics. In 2022 she became the ninth woman player named to the Hockey Hall of Fame; she is the first woman not born in North America to be so honoured. She announced her retirement from competition in April 2019, at age 46, shortly after achieving silver at the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship.
Did You Know?
- She was the first European woman inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame.
- She won a European Championship gold medal in rinkball in 1989.
- Her father, Eero, was a Finnish Champion pesäpallo player in the 1960s.
More in Hockey Hall of Fame Players, Part 3 1-24
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