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First elite all-female winter team sports league

Canada is home to the first elite all-female winter team sports league in North America, the National Ringette League (NRL). The league was established for the sport of ringette in Canada in 2004. The league recruits the best ringette talent in North America, largely from Canada, but some players originate from Finland or the United States. The league's players are unpaid as the league is not a professional one and acts as a showcase league instead.

Ringette was created exclusively for females in Canada in 1963 and excluded male athletes. As a result, the elite level of the sport consists entirely of players who are women. Because the sport has developed a female category, and a male category does not exist, the league has no opportunity to form a partnership with a male league counterpart. However, it does not have to compete with the men's sports leagues themselves, unlike professional women's soccer leagues, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) which must contend with the men's NBA or the North American women's Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) which must contend with the men's NHL.