Jiro Nihei (born 9 March 1971 in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) is a practical shooter and former professional ice hockey

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

. In 2019, Jiro Nihei took gold in the Manual Open division at the 2019 IPSC Rifle World Shoot. In 2017 he took Gold in the Manual division at the Nordic Rifle Championship. He has also been competing in the IPSC Production handgun division. His professional ice hockey career began in 1988 playing for

AIK IF Allmänna Idrottsklubben Ishockeyförening (abbreviated ''AIK IF'', also known as ''AIK Hockey'', often abbreviated ''AIK'' in hockey subjects), is the ice hockey department of sports club AIK based in Stockholm, Sweden. Since 2014, AIK's men's ...

in the

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (SHL; ) is a professional ice hockey league in Sweden and the highest level of the ice hockey in Sweden, Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, and while Li ...

. He then mainly played in the Swedish Division 2 until 2001 when he again played in the top Swedish Hockey League, this time for

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

. Jiro went on playing in the Asia League for the Japanese Cranes Team. Jiro has also participated in various international competitions with the Japanese National Hockey Team. For example, he was on the Japanese U20 Team in the 1989–1990 season and was on the Japanese national team at the 1998 Ice Hockey World Championship. Notably, he played for Japan against Finland and the Czech Republic at the

2004 IIHF World Championship The 2004 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship was held between 24 April and 9 May 2004 in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic. It was the 68th ice Hockey World Championships, and was run by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Qualifi ...

. Jiro's twin brother has also played ice hockey professionally as a forward. Their father is Japanese and mother Finnish.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nihei, Jiro Living people 1971 births Swedish ice hockey goaltenders Swedish people of Finnish descent Swedish people of Japanese descent Swedish twins Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2003 Asian Winter Games Ice hockey players at the 2003 Asian Winter Games Asian Games medalists in ice hockey Ice hockey people from Stockholm

See also

References