The 2019-2020 "BJEV Cup" Beijing Youth Hockey Premier League has kicked off with an opening ceremony which was held Saturday at Beijing Dream Defender Club, an ice rink venue located to the east of the Olympic Forest Park in north of the city.

The league is described to be the largest in scale and the longest in duration among youth ice hockey leagues in Asia and is said to have played an important role in the growth of the sport among youths in Beijing.

The 2019-2020 regular season began last weekend on October 26 and will go through to January 12, the playoff season running from March 7 through 29. 

3,701 youth players from 252 teams of 29 ice hockey clubs will take part in 1,094 games. The age groups range from U6 to U18. Apart from 11 teams from Tianjin and Hebei Province, all teams are from Beijing.

Xing He, executive vice secretary-general of the Beijing Ice Hockey Association, the organizer of the league, says along with a league for school teams in May which is also organized by the association, the two leagues can provide children in Beijing with all-year-long competitions.

This season, the league will host newly added U18 competitions which is regarded as a key achievement. They were not able to organize U18 games because there were not enough U18 players.

The change takes place as Beijing gears up for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. "On the one hand, there are indeed more young people playing ice hockey than before. 

On the other hand, as the 14th National Winter Games 2020 in February has added youth ice hockey competitions (which is exactly the U18 age group), it gives youth players more motives to practice and take part in league competitions," said Xing.

In September 2019, the General Administration of Sport of China decided to cancel adult group ice hockey competitions, only keeping youth groups for the 14th National Winter Games. 

It is an effort to drive the growth of a new generation of players as China prepares for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Currently, Beijing ranks at the top among Chinese provincial youth ice hockey teams. 

The teams have won championships at most of the national-level teenage competitions in 2018 and 2019; and in the 2nd Youth Games of China 2019, Beijing won all three gold medals for men and one out of two gold medals for women, said Xing. 

In 2012 when the association was founded, there were not many children playing the sport. 

In 2016, one year after Beijing won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Beijing municipal government started to provide financial support to the Beijing Youth Hockey Premier League.

Currently, there are around 4,000 registered youth ice hockey athletes in Beijing. Nearly three quarters of them play in this league.

Xing said the league had played a crucial role in raising the performance of Beijing's ice hockey youth teams.

"With the support from the Beijing municipal government, we hope to continue to improve the league while welcoming the Beijing Winter Olympic Games," she said.

(Video editor: Zhou Tingyu)