Japan didn’t compete in ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver but Sena Suzuki – 18 at the time and already a defender on her country’s women’s national team – remembers watching those Games and being inspired. 

“At the time of Vancouver, I really had a dream of being an Olympian,” she recalls. “From that point, I was really motivated.”

To fulfill her dream, she’d have to help her team qualify and, three years later, she did just that. At the Final Olympic Qualification tournament in Poprad, Slovakia in February 2013, Suzuki and the Japanese won three straight games, earning their place at the 2014 Sochi Olympics with a 5-0 win over Denmark on the last day. 

“Sochi was my first time, so I didn’t know how the Games go on,” she said. “Everything was new to me and I was happy just to be there.”

In Sochi, an overmatched Japanese team – in the Olympics for the first time in 16 years – played a solid team defensive game but lacked offence and was outscored by a respectable 7-1 combined total in three losses.

“But then I went abroad and in PyeongChang (in 2018), it was a lot better prepared and I had the confidence,” she said. “But I wasn’t really satisfied with the results. My expectations for myself and the team were higher.”

By 2015, Suzuki was a veteran of the Japanese women’s team but chose to develop her game overseas. Her first stop was the Toronto Furies of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, where she played three seasons. After that came two seasons in the Swedish SDHL, first with AIK Stockholm and then Gothenburg HC. 

“After Canada, Sweden had a completely different type of hockey, and that was pretty new for me.”

And how does Japanese hockey compare?

“As you can see, Japanese players don’t have the size compared to Swedish and Canadian players,” she smiled. “What we try to do is concentrate on the specific skills, such as skating, passing and stick-handling. I think that’s what our strong points are.”

Looking ahead to her third Olympics, the now 30-year-old Suzuki is the third-oldest player on the Japanese team and one of the leaders. A well-travelled player, she sees several former teammates around the Olympic village – Natalie Spooner, Sarah Nurse, Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose and Carolyne Prevost on Canada and Lisa Johansson, Emmy Alasalmi and Linnea Hedin on Sweden, which just happens to be Japan’s first opponent today. 

Looking ahead to the opening game, she assessed: “The Swedish players have the reach advantage over us. In terms of Team Japan, it’s about using a combination of speed and other skills to help us overcome this. For us, the advantage is our experience in recent years against stronger opponents, especially the World Championship last year was a big thing for us.”

At last August’s IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Calgary, Japan finished sixth, which is the country’s best ever finish. Suzuki thinks the Japanese can do even better in Beijing, and sees their toughest Group B opponent as Czechia, a team they play next Tuesday on the last day of the group stage. Last August, the Czechs beat Japan 4-0 in the group stage but Japan rebounded to win 3-2 in a placement game.

“From my point of view, Czechia is a very offensive team,” she said. “On the other side, we were able to handle their offence, so that really helped with the confidence of the whole team.”

Heading into her third Olympics, confidence is something that Suzuki seems to have, and she has lofty goals. She knows from experience that dreams can come true with enough motivation and hard work. 

“As a team, our goal is to finish at the top of our group. If we can do that, I believe it will put us in a position where we can compete for a medal.”