Editing Bemidji, Minnesota (section)

==Sports==
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2023}}
The city is well-known to hockey fans. As a Division II team, Bemidji State was a hockey dynasty in the 1980s and '90s. Bemidji State was in the title game eight straight years, winning five titles. It became a Division I team in 1999, and has not won any Division I titles.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

The city is also familiar to [[curling]] fans. Both men's and women's rinks from the [[Bemidji Curling Club]] won the right to represent the United States in the 2005 [[World Curling Championship]] and the [[2006 Winter Olympics]] in [[Torino, Italy|Torino]], [[Italy]]. [[Pete Fenson]], the [[captain (sports)|skip]] of the U.S. curling team that took the bronze medal at the [[2006 Olympics]], is a native of Bemidji, as is [[Natalie Nicholson]], who was the lead for the [[Curling at the 2010 Winter Olympics#Women's|United States women's team]] at the [[2010 Winter Olympics]] in [[Vancouver]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

A city referendum for a [[Bemidji Regional Events Center]] passed by a slim majority of 43 votes out of 4,583 cast in November 2006.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} Opening in 2010, the center was renamed the [[Sanford Center]] and serves as home to the [[Bemidji State University]] hockey team. The men's and women's hockey teams are both members of the [[Western Collegiate Hockey Association]].  From 2014 to 2015, the Sanford Center was the home of the city's first-ever professional sports team, the [[Bemidji Axemen]] of the [[Indoor Football League]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/3890871-indoor-football-axemen-axed-ifl|title=Indoor Football: Axemen axed from IFL|date=November 26, 2015|website=Bemidji Pioneer|access-date=October 21, 2019}}</ref>

From January 16 to January 19, 2019, Bemidji hosted [[Hockey Day Minnesota]], a three-day event aired on Fox Sports. The [[Bemidji High School]] and [[Bemidji State University]] boys and girls hockey teams both played on outdoor rinks outside of the [[Sanford Center]]. The [[Minnesota Wild]] team also played on the outdoor rinks.

In 2013, runners signed up for the first [[Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon]]. The race, run in October, draws athletes and recreational runners from around the region. The events spawned a weekend of races that includes two kids races, a 5K, 10K, half-marathon and a 26K that circles Lake Bemidji.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/news/4509966-back-blue-ox-two-day-event-starts-friday-bemidji|title=Back for the Blue Ox: Two-Day Event Starts Friday in Bemidji|last=Matthew|first=Liedke|date=October 7, 2018|work=Bemidji Pioneer|access-date=April 17, 2019}}</ref>