{"id":371027,"date":"2026-01-15T09:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371027\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:01:15","slug":"what-australian-sport-can-learn-from-queer-ice-hockey-hit-heated-rivalry-ice-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371027\/","title":{"rendered":"What Australian sport can learn from queer ice hockey hit Heated Rivalry | Ice hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heated Rivalry, the viral queer ice hockey romance that hit our screens in November, might be doing more than just capturing hearts and winning over hockey fans. With increased attendance at NHL games<\/a> in North America and interest in the sport in Australia spiking<\/a>, the power of inclusive and diverse storytelling in a sport setting is showing the industry a new playbook.<\/p>\n

Based on a book series by the Nova Scotian romance author Rachel Reid, the rivals-to-lovers tale of two fictional ice hockey players \u2013 Canada\u2019s Shane Hollander and Russia\u2019s Ilya Rozanov \u2013 explores queer love and acceptance in men\u2019s professional sport.<\/p>\n

Written by an ice hockey fan uncomfortable with the hypermasculine attitude that often pervades the sport, Heated Rivalry has not only become one of the most talked about television events of the year but demonstrates popular culture\u2019s power to drive change.<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s professional sport is often dominated by a culture of hypermasculinity and homophobia is rife, with few male athletes choosing to come out, even in retirement.<\/p>\n

In Australia, the NBL\u2019s Isaac Humphries and the A-League footballer Josh Cavallo have led the way in being active and out athletes. However, as shown by Cavallo\u2019s accusations of homophobia after his departure from Adelaide United<\/a>, there is a long way to go to demonstrate genuine acceptance for queer people in sport.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Heated Rivalry is doing something different. While it\u2019s a romance, it depicts a sporting environment where queer stories shine.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often LGBTIQA+ athletes are hidden, silenced, or openly vilified,\u201d says Dr Ryan Storr, a diversity and inclusion expert and founder of The Diversity Storr.<\/p>\n

Storr highlights the importance of exploring diverse stories in sport and the power these narratives have to highlight the issues queer athletes face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show did really did a great job in showcasing the love story, but also the athletes\u2019 private lives and the things closeted athletes have to go through on a day-to-day basis. It is exhausting, stressful \u2013 and we know through research that it leads to poor mental health outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storr says Australian sport can take lessons from a show like Heated Rivalry, such as to be more inclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian sport sector has made a great start, with increased activity in this space in the past couple of years \u2013 from pride rounds and activations, to the development of participation programs for LGBTIQA+ people, and inclusive policies around trans and gender diverse athletes,\u201d Storr says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think some sports still view this type of diversity and the various communities as too difficult, and that there is no market for LGBTIQA+ players and fans.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Heated Rivalry] shows there is absolutely a market and strong business case to adopt LGBTIQA+ inclusive practices and cultures, which will not only benefit LGBTIQA+ communities, but the wider fandom and sport community too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports romance is part of a broader trend, with shows such as Drive to Survive and Taylor Swift\u2019s attendance at NFL games providing a pop culture-led entry point to sport. The question is: are sports ready and willing to change to accommodate more diversity and inclusion?<\/p>\n

Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov in Heated Rivalry. Photograph: Sabrina Lantos\/HBO Max<\/p>\n

Heated Rivalry is a Canadian show, depicting a popular North American sport, so it is hard to imagine a culture so far removed from Australia driving impact here.<\/p>\n

\u201cHockey culture in Canada is fraught with problems, and recently we\u2019ve learned about how it\u2019s systemic,\u201d says Dr Kyle Rich, an associate professor of sport management at Brock University in Canada. \u201cSo, I don\u2019t necessarily think that is something to try and replicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHockey has a really strong image and association here \u2013 our five-dollar bill has an image of kids playing hockey on a frozen pond. But with this imagery comes a lot of baggage. Hockey is plagued with a culture of toxic masculinity and misogyny.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a niche sport in Australia, ice hockey enjoys a strong community. There are established queer clubs in Melbourne<\/a> working to make hockey more inclusive and challenge some of the sport\u2019s cultural problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of interest coming in from people interested in Heated Rivalry and this really demonstrates one thing to me: our queer community really wants to play sport, but often doesn\u2019t see themselves in it,\u201d says Kade Matthews, founder of Southern Lights Ice Hockey in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeated Rivalry gives people the courage to get in contact with us because they\u2019ve finally seen a version of sport \u2013 that conveniently is ice hockey in our case \u2013 that includes them. It\u2019s friendship and acceptance over results, it\u2019s feeling you have a space over fighting for a spot in a squad. We\u2019re all humans first, athletes second.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sports romance audience overlaps heavily with the self-professed category of 20% of Australians being \u201csports haters\u201d<\/a>, which includes young women. This same market segment comprises some of the most frequent and most engaged social media users, which at least in part explains the fan-led response and popularity explosion for a show made in Canada with a modest budget, unknown actors and minimal marketing.<\/p>\n

Australian sporting organisations can take some lessons in how to leverage such interest. For example, the Canadian ice hockey team\u2019s social media manager met the moment and embraced the crossover opportunity by engaging with fans\u2019 desire to source the fleece Hollander wore at the show\u2019s fictionalisation of the 2014 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

In joining the conversation and pitching to have the fleece merchandise manufactured in real life for the upcoming Milano Cortina Winter Games, the social media manager brought in new fans and amplified Team Canada\u2019s profile.<\/p>\n

Heated Rivalry shows there is an enormous under-serviced market hungry for diverse, quality content and that the sporting clubs and organisations already doing the work need more support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heavy lifting is currently being done by volunteers at clubs like Southern Lights, always with our own resources, from our own people,\u201d Matthews says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for these organisations to get on board, listen to the clubs already doing the work, and proactively support them,.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heated Rivalry, the viral queer ice hockey romance that hit our screens in November, might be doing more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-371027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}