The IIHF’s Historical Committee has announced the winner of its Contributors’ Awards to be handed out during the final weekend of the 2026 World Championship in Zurich, Switzerland.
Longtime coach Pat Cortina will receive the Paul Loicq Award. Slovakian goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova becomes the first woman to receive the Richard “Bibi” Torriani Award. And, Czech journalist Pavel Barta, will be given the IIHF Media Award. In addition, Latvian Aleksandrs Cicurskis is the winner of the Johan Bollue Award. There is no Milestone Award recipient this year.
Pat Cortina (CAN/ITA - Paul Loicq Award)
Cortina has had a singularly extraordinary coaching career in the international world of hockey. He has coached junior hockey and senior. He has coached men and women. He has coached in several countries, domestically and internationally. For more than 35 years, Cortina has been behind the bench of some team in Europe. His first decade passed in Italy in the Alpenliga, as well as with the junior and senior national teams. He moved to Hungary for most of the 2000s, coaching Szekesfehervar domestically and the national team in Division I. The 2010s saw Cortina move to Germany, where he coached at the top level, most notably in 2015 when he was head coach of both the senior and World Junior teams. And in the 2020s, Cortina moved back to Hungary and took control of the national women’s team, which has played in the top pool for three of the past five years.
Zuzana Tomcikova (SVK - Richard “Bibi” Torriani Award)
Goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova spent most of her career out of the spotlight, but for three incredible events she stood tall the way no Slovakian player had previously. For the better part of six years she fought in the lower divisions, trying to help her country get to the top level of play in women’s hockey. Finally, in 2009, the team earned promotion to the top division for the first time, and then a year later the Slovakians qualified for their first Olympics.
Both of these successes couldn’t have been achieved without the sparkling goaltending of Tomcikova. And in 2011, at the Women’s Worlds in Switzerland. Tomcikova was nothing short of sensational, allowing only 12 goals against world powers United States, Sweden, and Russia, and then allowing only one more goal in two games of the relegation round. She was named tournament MVP, a monumental honour, and a year later she was again stellar, despite Slovakia’s demotion. Tomcikova retired in 2015 having played more in the lower divisions than the top, but her brief but incredible play at the Olympics and Women’s Worlds proved she was a world-class goalie.
Pavel Barta (CZE - IIHF Media Award)
Czech journalist Pavel Barta has been writing about hockey for more than 40 years. After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism at university, he began working at the sports weekly magazine “Gol” in 1983. In the ensuing years, he wrote for Hokej magazine and Sport Daily and worked in television with Ceska televize, TV Nova, and Sport 1. He has contributed stories to publications from around the hockey world, notably The Hockey News (Canada), Kiekko Lehti (Finland), and Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden). Barta has covered 25 IIHF World Championships, four Olympics (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010), four Canada Cups/World Cups (1991, 1996, 2004, 2016), and more than a dozen World Junior Championships.
Aleksandrs Cicurskis (LAT - Johan Bollue Award)
Born and raised in Riga, Cicurskis played an important role in the development of young players in his native Latvia, notably in Liepaja. He coached Lavia’s U18 and U20 teams in the 1990s as well as club teams in various levels of play, most frequently at the youth level. Cicurskis started out as a player, but when he was asked to coach a youth team, he accepted the opportunity and never looked back. His big break came when he coached a group of 1970-born players that included Viktors Ignatjevs, Sandis Ozolins, Aigars Cipruss, and Sergejs Zholtoks.
His life changed forever in 1998 when Liepaja became the home of a new hockey school, and Cicurskis moved there to run it. He stayed until 2021, earning a reputation as a tough but fair coach and helping many players go on to professional careers.
In all, Cicurskis counts eight hockey players who were successful in North America after growing up under his tutelage: Ozolins, Zholtoks, Ignatjevs, Grigorijs Pantelejevs, Raitis Ivanans, Ronalds Kenins, Kristians Pelss, and Rudolfs Balcers.