Denmark: Siltanews – News Desk
Jesper Damgaard knows how to embrace change while also staying close to his roots. The former Danish national team captain, 50, relocated earlier this year to Siena, Italy, where his wife Jenny is working in football yet he was overjoyed to come home during the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, co-hosted by Herning, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden.
Damgaard – the all-time leader in Danish national team games (265) – witnessed his nation recording an all-time best fourth-place finish after a 6-2 bronze-medal loss to Tre Kronor in the Swedish capital He also took part in the celebrations as his 2002-03 Danish national team was honored at the Contributors’ Awards during the IIHF’s two-day Hall of Fame event.
With Damgaard setting the tone as their top defenseman, that team ended a 54-year Danish absence from the top division of the Ice Hockey World Championship It secured promotion from Division I in 2002 with crucial wins over Norway and Hungary and then stunned the world in 2003 by beating the U.S. 5-2 and tying Canada 2-2 at the Worlds in Finland. The Danes have never been relegated since.
Damgaard was the recipient of the IIHF’s 2018 Bibi Torriani Award as an outstanding player for an up-and-coming hockey nation, and the achievements of 2002-03 form a big part of his legacy.
Yet he also appreciates that his group couldn’t have done it without head coach Mikael Lundstrom. The Swede, whose varied coaching resume also included the national teams of France and Kuwait, would guide Denmark through the 2006 Worlds.
“He came in with a whole new mentality,” Damgaard told IIHF.com. “We wanted to be a little bit more professional, but also wanted to keep the Danish way. And the Danish way is still working it’s like, when we come together, we have fun, and when you have fun, you play better, and then you want to do it even better for the guy sitting next to you.
So he understands that we wanted to keep our Danish way, and he brought in that professionalism. That’s why we had success.”
The family feeling within Danish hockey is a through line that connects the 2002-03 national teams to the Cinderella squad who made history in Herning and Stockholm.
“The group chemistry at that time was almost the same as we have today,” said Damgaard, who wore the “C” for Denmark at 11 IIHF men’s tournaments before retiring at 35. “The Danish people are good at coming together like a group, being happy together, like a big family.
We play with our hearts for the lion on our jersey, and that’s why the guys are here today. You see a guy like Nikolaj Ehlers. Twenty-four hours after he’s out of the NHL playoffs, he comes back right away, because he wants to play with our guys. We’re so proud to play for our country.”