Wenn ich nicht spiele, würde ich niemanden lieber im Tor haben als meine eigene Schwester. Ich vergönne ihr jeden Erfolg, den sie hat.
Magdalena emphasizes: "We both want to play every game, that's clear. We're very ambitious, otherwise we wouldn't be where we are right now." But one of the sisters will always have to take a back seat. That isn't easy, especially at their Top Division World Championship debut.
However, the 21-year-old says: "If I'm not playing, there's nobody I'd rather see in goal than my own sister. I genuinely wish her all the success she gets. It warms my heart just as much as if I were playing myself."
"Unconditional support" from their parents
Their good relationship is no coincidence. Selma and Magdalena grew up together and were always out and about as a pair. Off the ice, however, ice hockey is not a big topic of conversation, both point out.
That's also due to their parents: "They have no clue about ice hockey, they still don't know the rules," Selma grins. "It was actually quite nice for us that home wasn't all about ice hockey." Nevertheless, they appreciate the "unconditional support" they have received.
Back then, their parents probably didn't realize how far ice hockey would take their children. "I don't think they ever thought we would be playing at a Top Division World Championship," Magdalena believes.
She adds with a smile: "Otherwise, they would have tried to talk us out of both becoming goalies."
How both became goalies
The sisters took their first steps on the ice playing small-ice hockey as skaters. "Definitely not as defensemen, which you can tell when we play the puck," Magdalena laughs.
It was the older sister who paved the way into goal. "I went into goal because my best friend was a goalie too. I liked it, and I stuck with it," says Selma, asking "Leni": "Did you just want to do whatever I was doing?"
The US-based player replies: "I just copied her, like I did everywhere else in life. At some point it was too late, and I stayed in goal."
They got into ice hockey through their older brother Florian, who also played in the Vienna Capitals youth system. "He was a skater, though," Magdalena says. "Thank goodness, otherwise our parents probably would have gone bankrupt with three goalies."
Shared passion for ice hockey
Being able to play the sport together was a huge motivation for the sisters. "We pushed through it together. My old gear was at home, so you had to wear it. 'Leni' didn't really have a choice," Selma says with a wink.
And whenever their brother decided he needed one of his sisters for a practice session, Magdalena had to bite the bullet. The banter certainly runs in the family, that much is obvious.
That is also connected to the fact that ice hockey is their passion. "It just became a part of life. It was always clear that we'd head to practice after school; it was just a given. It was fun every single day to be able to do that," says Magdalena.
Lifelong friendships were formed through the sport; Selma has always enjoyed "being able to play ice hockey with my best friends." "Our parents put us in the car even on days when we didn't really feel like it," she says.
"There's a women's national team?"
Even so, for a long time it wasn't clear that the hobby could ever turn into something more. The sisters reveal this in the following dialogue:
Selma: "I didn't realize there was a women's national team."
Magdalena: "Not for a long time, right?"
Selma: "Not for the longest time."
Magdalena: "At some point, we were called up to a youth national team camp."
Wenn man eine Frau oder ein Mädchen im Eishockey ist, muss man eine harte Schale und Durchhaltevermögen haben, denn einfach ist es nicht.
At age 13, Magdalena attended a camp where national team netminder David Kickert happened to be one of the coaches. He asked her what her goal was. "I said, I want to be as good as Selma."
Kickert replied that wasn't a good goal and that she needed to set a different one. "Back then, I still thought I could play in the NHL. When he told me that wasn't possible, he suggested college hockey. From that point on, I worked even harder."
A thick skin is required
The hard work paid off, but the path to the national team was certainly not easy and was marked by plenty of prejudice—especially in youth hockey, where Selma and Magdalena often trained and played with the boys.
Both tried not to let the prejudice get to them. "It never got into my head," Selma says. "Our parents taught us by example that there is no difference between women and men."
Magdalena looks back on the Under-12 national championships: "Parents in the crowd were complaining because there was a girl in goal." Not because she was bad, "but because the opposing team simply couldn't score a goal."
Selma therefore emphasizes: "If you're a woman or a girl in ice hockey, you need to have a thick skin and perseverance, because it isn't easy."
Selma and Magdalena Luggin have earned their spot on the national team, despite the prejudices they faced early on in youth hockey. Being at a Top Division World Championship together is more than just an athletic achievement for both of them.
