The year of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (5-21 May 2017 in Cologne and Paris) has just begun. Right on the year's first day, Germany's world-class alpine ski racer Felix Neureuther was appointed as the first official ambassador of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which is jointly hosted by Germany and France. An official ambassador hockey jersey, with the number 17 of course, was handed over to him by Franz Reindl, President of the Championship Organizing Committee. The handover ceremony was featured by German prime TV station ARD in the context of the transmissions of the "New Year's Ski Jump" event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany for a TV audience of about five million viewers.

"Felix Neureuther is an absolutely outstanding athlete and a top tier figurehead for the entire German sport. We are indeed very proud that Felix will represent the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship as an official ambassador and that, as such, he will promote our event towards his giant fan community in Germany as well as in many other countries,” said Franz Reindl upon the appointment.

Felix Neureuther added about his new role: "I was always a great ice hockey fan. The live experience at an ice hockey game cannot be topped. The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany and France will be a really cool event. I am most looking forward to it, all the more as I am really good friends with some of the fellows of the German national ice hockey team. I'll be more than pleased that I can utilize my role as an official ambassador to help creating the buzz for the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Cologne and Paris".

The 32-year-old Felix Neureuther from Garmisch-Partenkirchen is racing in the alpine ski world cup since 2003. He is a slalom specialist. With currently twelve world cup victories, he is the most successful male ski racer from Germany in the world cup history. At skiing world championships he could achieve several medals.

The 2017 IIHF WM Organizing Committee is intending to appoint a very exclusive squad of ten official ambassadors from sports and other society areas. Official ambassadors represent the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, bringing in their name, their picture and the identification with the values, they have constantly been standing for. In their role, the make use of their popularity and their networks in order to help generating awareness for 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Felix Neureuther alone can, as an example, refer to almost 580,000 subscribers of his personal Facebook page.

Tickets for the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship are available:

• Here in the official Online Ticket Shop or on www.facebook.com/IIHFHockey.
• via ticket phone: +49 1806 2017 01 for Germany and +33 892 69 20 17 for France (phone charges will apply depending on country and network calling from).