Pirjo Hannele Ahonen (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Nieminen, previously Blomqvist; born 5 November 1970) is a Finnish retired

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

and

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

player and a former member of the Finnish women's national ice hockey team and national bandy team. In ice hockey, she won a bronze medal with the Finnish national team at the

1999 IIHF Women's World Championship The 1999 IIHF Women's World Championships was held between March 8–14, 1999, in Espoo and Vantaa in Finland. Canadian national women's ice hockey team, Team Canada won their fifth consecutive gold medal at the World Championships defeating the ...

and competed in the women's ice hockey tournament at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

. Her ice hockey club career was played in the

Naisten SM-sarja The is the national premier league for women's ice hockey in Finland. Founded by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association as the Naisten Suomen mestaruus, SM-sarja (NSMs; ) in 1982, it was known as the Naisten Liiga (NSML;) from 2017 until being rebr ...

with

KalPa Naiset Kalevan Pallo Naiset (), abbreviated as KalPa Naiset, are an ice hockey team in the Auroraliiga. Founded in 1990, the team plays in Kuopio, the largest city in Finland's eastern-central province of North Savo, at the Kuopion jäähalli (unoffici ...

Tampereen Ilves Naiset Tampereen Ilves Naiset () are an ice hockey team in the Auroraliiga. They are the representative women's team of the multi-sport club Ilves, based in Tampere, and their home arena is the in Tampere's Tesoma district. Ilves is the only team th ...

, and

JYP Jyväskylä Naiset JYP Naiset or JYP Jyväskylä Naiset is a Finnish ice hockey team in the Naisten Mestis. Their home is the Jyväskylän harjoitusjäähalli ('Jyväskylä training ice hall') in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. JYP Naiset have won the Aurora Borea ...

, which was also known as the Jyväskylän Hockey Cats (JyHC) during her tenure. Ahonen holds the record for most games played with the Finnish women's national bandy team, appearing in 63 international matches with the team. Having represented Finland at a number of

Women's Bandy World Championship The Women's Bandy World Championships is an international sports tournament for women and the premier international competition for women's bandy among bandy-playing nations. The tournament is administrated by the Federation of International Bandy ...

s, she won bronze medals at the tournaments in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. Her bandy club career was played with

Jyväskylän Seudun Palloseura Jyväskylän Seudun Palloseura (abbreviated JPS) is a sports club from Jyväskylä, Finland. The club was formed in 1962 and their home ground is at the Vehkalammen kenttä. The men's football team currently plays in the Kolmonen (Third Divisi ...

(JPS), Botnia-69 Helsinki, Veiterä Lappeenranta, and

Mikkelin Kampparit Mikkelin Kampparit is a bandy club in Mikkeli, Finland. The team colours are black and white. The club was founded in 1972, the same year as when Finland's Bandy Association Finland's Bandy Association (Finnish: ''Suomen Jääpalloliitto'', Swedi ...

. Ahonen was named the Finnish Women's Bandy Player of the Year by the Finnish Bandy Association three times, in 2005, 2007, and 2012.

References

External links

* * * 1970 births Living people Finnish bandy players Finnish women's ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ilves Naiset players JYP Jyväskylä Naiset players Jyväskylän Hockey Cats players KalPa Naiset players Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Sportspeople from Jyväskylä {{Finland-icehockey-player-stub