Kirsi Hänninen

Kirsi Maaria Hänninen (born 3 October 1976 in Joensuu, Finland) is a retired Finnish ice hockey defenceman and pesäpallo player. She played 116 games with the Finnish national ice hockey team and won a bronze medal with them at the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Over her ten-year hockey career, Hänninen played with five different teams in the Naisten SM-sarja, the highest level women's hockey league in Finland. She spent four seasons, from 1996 to 2000, with JYP Jyväskylä and won the SM-sarja Championship with them in 1996 and 1997. She also played with JoKP (1992–93), Kiekko-Espoo (1993–94), KalPa (1995–96), and Oulun Kärpät (2001-02).
Hänninen is equally known in Finland for her career in the Superpesis, Finland's top pesäpallo league, where she competed from 1993 to 2005.
== Personal life ==
Hänninen is a founding member of VRT Finland, an underwater structural inspection company operating in the Baltic Sea and Central Europe, and currently serves as CEO of the company.
== Awards and honors ==
Ice Hockey
Award 	Year
Naisten SM-sarja Champion 	1997 (JyP HT)
1998 (JYP)
Most Points by a Defenceman
in the Olympic Ice Hockey Women's Tournament	1998 (7 points)tied with Thérèse Brisson
Best Defenceman
in the IIHF World Women's Championships 	1999
IIHF World Women's Championships All-Star Team 	1999
Suomen JääkiekkoleijonaInducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame Finland	2018
== References ==
== External links ==
*Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Eurohockey.com, or Sports-reference.com.
Category:Born in 1976
Category:1998 Olympian
Category:Finnish hockey players
Category:Female ice hockey players