| Marjukka Virta | |
| Headercolor: | darkblue |
| Textcolor: | white |
| Birth Date: | 8 February 1983 |
| Birth Place: | Karinainen (Finland) |
| Height Ft: | 5 |
| Height In: | 9 |
| Weight Lb: | 154 |
| Position: | Forward |
| Shoots: | Left |
| Updated: | August 28, 2023 |
Marjukka Virta (born 1983 in Karinainen, Finland) is a retired elite Finnish ringette player who played forward in semi-professional ringette in Finland and for the Finland national ringette team, but now coaches the sport.[1]
Virta (now retired as a player) has won six World Ringette Championships gold and one silver as a player for Team Finland Senior. For six of those national team world victories, Virta was the captain.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
As a semi-professional player, Virta played in Finland's SM Ringette league, Finland's premiere ringette league, formerly known as Ringeten SM-sarja.
The Finnish ringette association, Ringette Finland, froze Virta's jersey number 4 on November 1, 2022, in Turku and is the first Finnish ringette player in history to receive this honour.[9] The freeze officially took place in the Rajupaja Areena before the game against Team Canada.[10]
Marjukka Virta has been playing ringette since she was 8 years old and during her junior career played for the TPS Turku sports club. She eventually won the Finnish junior championship silver medal. Virta played ice hockey for a time as well,[11] but in 2006 decided to focus only on ringette because of the sense of belonging.[12]
Virta has competed as a ringette player for Team Finland and was captain six times.
At her first world championships, the 2002 World Ringette Championships, she won silver.[13]
At the 2007 World Ringette Championships, the final was between Team Canada and Team Finland. Both teams played in overtime because with just over a minute remaining in regulation time, Virta scored the goal that tied the game 4-4. It was her teammate, Anne Pohjola, who scored the game-winning goal that allowed Finland to win the gold medal and the world title.[14] [15]
At the 2010 World Ringette Championships, she was named captain of the Finland national ringette team and once again led her team to the world title.[16]
At the 2013 World Ringette Championships she was chosen as the tournament's Most Valuable Player.[17]
As a coach, she was one of the assistant coaches of 2022 Team Finland Senior at the 2022 World Ringette Championships when the team won gold.[1]
Virta joined the semi-professional elite national ringette league of Finland. Ringeten SM-sarja, now called SM Ringette, is known as the Finnish national ringette league by English speakers.
Finland's Association of Sports Journalists selected Virta as the best ringette player of 2014, and in 2020 she was awarded the Agnes Jacks Trophy as the most valuable player in SM Ringette.[18] She was selected to the All Stars team of SM Ringette in 2003, 2008, 2010, 2020 and 2021.[19]
While a player, Virta represented various clubs including: Turun Ringette,,,, Tuusula Blue Rings, and . As a player with Lapinlahden Luistin -89, she won the national championship twice and since 2016 has been the player-coach for the team.[17]
She won the Finnish championship with the Lapinlahti team in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2021 and with Nokia (NoU) in 2015 and 2016.[20] [21] [22]
Virta last played for for the 2021–22 season after which she retired as a player. She finished in second place after the 2021–22 season in the all-time point statistics of SM Ringette. She has played 620 matches in the SM division and scored a total of 3,088 power points (1,408 goals and 1,680 assists).[23] She crossed the 3 000 power point mark as the second player after Anne Pohjola and the 600 game mark as the fourth.[1]
| Year | Event | Results | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Ringette Championships[24] | 4 | 10 | 10 | 20 | - | 8 | Gold | |||
| 2010 | World Ringette Championships[25] | 5 | 7 | 11 | 18 | - | 2 | Gold |