Color of Hockey: Peru looking 'to build bridges' on international stage

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, as part of NHL.com's celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, he profiles Peru’s men’s hockey team, which won the silver medal in Men’s Division III in its debut at the 2025 Amerigol LATAM Cup.

Winning silver has been gold for Peru’s men’s hockey team after its debut at the 2025 Amerigol LATAM Cup.

“A lot of persons, Peruvians, born in Canada and the United States are sending messages to our Instagram saying, ‘Hey, I’m Peruvian, too, I want to play next year,” said Christian Clement, captain of the Peruvian squad that earned a silver medal in men’s Division III at the LATAM Cup. “A lot of persons want our jersey. We have to produce a new batch of jerseys. We ordered, the first time, 50 jerseys, we sold them all. We have a list of people waiting, more than 40.”

It’s exactly the buzz Peru was hoping for when it entered the tournament that featured 62 men's, women’s and youth teams (with four more exhibition teams) and more than 1,450 players representing 17 countries and territories, including Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Peru lost 6-1 to Pakistan in the men’s Division III championship game at the Florida Panthers IceDen but won by drawing attention to the team that consisted largely of players from the capital city of Lima, who want to grow ice hockey and inspire the construction of a full-sized rink in the soccer-obsessed South American country of 34.22 million people.

“We'll start to build bridges with this first edition,” Clement said. “For me, it’s super important to show that we want to grow the game with people that live in Peru. We’re older, but we want to pass the torch so if we don’t do it now, no one will actually believe that we can do that sport here.”

Peru’s ice hockey journey was 30 years in the making. Lima, like several other cities and towns across Latin America, has had an active roller hockey scene since the 1990s, when rollerblading became a craze. Clement discovered thatwhen he moved to Lima from Thurso, Quebec -- the birthplace of Guy Lafleur -- about 11 years ago.

“These are my brothers," he said. "I found a community of hockey, I learned who are the players, who are the really good players, who are people who want to actually help (grow hockey) in the community. I learned from them. I proposed, ‘Hey, let's do a tournament in roller hockey outside (Peru). We go to Ecuador, after that I decide to go to Chile with the team.”

Though roller hockey was satisfying, Clement and his teammates had an irresistible urge to play on ice. There are no NHL or International-sized indoor or outdoor ice sheets in Peru, but there are a few small rinks in the Lima area. So the Peruvian Association of Inline Hockey partnered with the Friendship League, an international sports tourism organization, to host a 3-on-3 tournament on a small ice rink in Lima’s San Miguel district in June 2024.

“We did a little tournament with five teams, mix of men and women, no slap shot, just for fun, just for the exposure of the game,” Clement said. “A lot of people started having fun and said, ‘Hey, I can play (on) ice. This is fun.”

The experience, and the attention it brought, left the Peruvian roller players wanting more and on a larger scale. Clement said he suggested entering the LATAM Cup, following the path taken by other Latin American countries that have the desire to play ice hockey but not the sufficient rinks on which to do it.

“When you play roller hockey, the ultimate goal is playing ice hockey,” said Samuel Hokama, Peru’s goalie and president of the Peruvian inline hockey association. “But it's kind of hard to get ice here in Peru. So my dream was almost dead, but when everything around Amerigol started popping up, taking shape, the dream started to glow a little bit brighter.

“I started playing roller because it was fun, it was better, at least for me, than playing soccer. I could play soccer every single day of the week every single place in Peru … But in my personal view, I’m mad about hockey because I like how it evolves around ownership, team bonding, about being the ultimate team sport. And it’s hard to play because you get to skate first, then you get to play. You get hit, you get to hit.”

Forward Jorge Choy also dreamed of playing a regular game on a full-sized ice rink. He was wide-eyed when he stepped onto one of the IceDen’s NHL-sized rinks for the first time.

“It was like always swimming in a pool and then getting into the sea, right?" Choy said. "I couldn't see the end of the rink. I was not the only one who experienced that. It was amazing.”

The Peruvian team is looking forward to returning to the LATAM Cup in 2026 and to keep going and growing in the years to come.

“My real dream would be to develop a youth program here in Peru because we’re a bunch of 35-year-olds,” forward Russel Lovado said. “My dream is one day, when we get the opportunity to actually have a real rink, is to start developing the young teams because we can play another five, six years, but what’s going to happen when we’re done playing?

"Hopefully it can grow.”