Juriquilla’s NHL-size rink, venue of IIHF world championships in 2022 and 2025
Lakeside Ice Park in Juriquilla is built to National Hockey League dimensions, and in July 2022 it staged the IIHF Under-20 World Championship Division III. Opening that tournament, Querétaro mayor Luis Bernardo Nava called it the best rink in the country and said it had been built eight years earlier. Eight national teams, from Australia and Israel to South Africa and Chinese Taipei, played here from July 22 to 30, and Mexico took silver after losing the final 5-4 to Chinese Taipei.
Four players on that Mexican under-20 roster came from Querétaro: Emmanuel Santiago, Eduardo Valencia, Luis Eliel Valencia and Daniel Alexander Valencia. Mexico’s coach, Diego de la Garma, said many spectators arrived knowing nothing about hockey and then bought tickets for the whole tournament. The senior world championships followed in 2025, when Lakeside hosted Division III Group B from April 27 to May 3 against five Asian teams, and Mexico beat every opponent.
Between international events, the rink runs its own hockey school, from Minis through Bantam and Midget, and a figure-skating academy whose weekly plans pair ice sessions with acrobatics, functional training and ballet.