Sara Karin Maria Grahn (born 25 September 1988) is a Swedish

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 ...

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 ...

for

Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Hockey/MSSK are a semi-professional ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They play in Luleå, a port city in northeastern Sweden, at Coop Norrbotten Arena. The team is the most successful in SDHL history, having b ...

in the

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ...

(, SDHL) and the Swedish national team. She is the longest tenured goaltender in SDHL history, the only to have ever played more than 300 games, and has won the SDHL championship five times.

Career

Growing up in

Hallsberg Hallsberg () is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Hallsberg Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with 7,122 inhabitants in 2010. It is also partly located in Kumla Municipality. Overview This settlement grew up around a railway junction, ...

, Grahn began skating at the age of four and began playing as a goaltender at the age of ten. When Riksserien was founded as the top flight of women's hockey in Sweden in 2007, she signed professionally with

Linköping HC Linköping Hockey Club, often known by its Acronym, initials LHC, or Colloquialism, colloquially among its fans as Cluben, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Linköping, founded in 1976. The home arena of the team is Saab Arena (for ...

. After three years in Linköping, she left the club to sign with

Brynäs IF Brynäs IF is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from Gävle. The club currently plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), promoted from the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of ice hockey in Sweden, following the 2023–24 season. The ...

, attracted in part by the more professional environment and the presence of goaltending coach Pecka Alcén. In February 2015, she posted a 55-save shutout in a 1–0 victory over

Leksands IF Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. The team plays in the top-tier league, Swedish Hockey League (SHL), after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus ...

in the playoff quarterfinals. She was named the Riksserien Goaltender of the Year for the 2014–15 season. In the 2015–16 season, she played two matches for Brynäs' U20 boys' team, posting a .971 save percentage. That year, she was also loaned out to

Hockeytvåan Hockeytvåan is the fourth tier of ice hockey in Sweden. It previously operated as the second-level league from 1941 to 1975, and the third-level league from 1975 to 1999. Format The league is divided into 11 regional groups. The top teams in D ...

club Oppala IK, in the third division of Swedish men's hockey, for a game in late November 2015, posting a shutout. After eight seasons with Brynäs, she left the club to sign with reigning champions

ahead of the 2018–19 SDHL season, citing the greater investment into women's hockey in Luleå and the delays in addressing problems in Brynäs.

International career

Grahn has represented the Swedish national team at three consecutive Olympics, making her Olympic debut at the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

, and representing the country again in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. She, however, didn't play a game at the 2010 Olympics, serving as the team's third goaltender. She made her IIHF World Championship debut for Sweden at the

2007 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2007 IIHF Women's World Championships were held from April 3 to 10, 2007 in Winnipeg and Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. There were no championships in 2006 due to the Torino Olympic tournament. Games were played at the MTS Centre and Selkirk ...

, and has appeared in an additional nine World Championships since. She took part in the 2019 Sweden women's national ice hockey team strike.

Personal life

Grahn has studied at the

Luleå University of Technology Luleå University of Technology is a Public university, public research university in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The university has four campuses located in the Arctic, Arctic Region in the cities of Luleå, Kiruna, Skellefteå, and Piteå. With ...

. In August 2018, she launched the Sara Grahn Goalie Development Camp for young girls in

Sandviken Sandviken is a locality and the seat of Sandviken Municipality in Gävleborg County, Sweden with 26,438 inhabitants in 2023. It is situated about 25 km west of Gävle and lies approximately 190 km north of Stockholm. The rail journey t ...

References

External links

* * * 1988 births Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Living people Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden Ice hockey people from Örebro Swedish women's ice hockey goaltenders Brynäs IF (women) players Örebro HK players Linköping HC (women) players Luleå HF/MSSK players 21st-century Swedish sportswomen {{Sweden-icehockey-player-stub