U.S. women’s hockey captain wants focus back on gold-medal win after ‘distasteful’ Trump remarks
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U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight is calling for the focus to shift back to her team’s dominant Olympic run, after comments by U.S. president Donald Trump that she described as “distasteful and unfortunate.”
The powerhouse American women’s team went undefeated throughout the Olympics, outscoring opponents, 33-2, en route to gold.
It wasn’t until the final game, when the Americans were challenged by a scrappy Canadian team that played with grit, that things ever looked to be in doubt. The Americans won 2-1 in overtime.
Less than one week after that win, at a celebration held by the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent, Knight found herself answering questions about another person’s comments.
After the U.S. men defeated Canada in overtime to win Olympic gold on Sunday, a video showed Trump calling the men to congratulate them and invite them to the White House.
“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump said.
Some players in the video laughed, while one person could be heard shouting “two for two.”
“I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?” Trump said to more laughter.
“I just thought the joke was distasteful and unfortunate,” Knight, who captains the Seattle Torrent, said on Wednesday.
“And I think just the way women are represented, it’s a great teaching point to really shine light on how women should be championed for their amazing feats. Now I have to sit, or anybody has to sit, in front of you and explain someone else’s behaviour. It’s not my responsibility.”
The majority of the men’s Olympic team accepted Trump’s invitation and attended the state of the union address on Tuesday. The women’s team declined its invitation, citing timing and commitments with their professional and NCAA teams.
While Trump suggested on Tuesday that members of the women’s team will be coming to the White House “soon,” there doesn’t appear to be anything planned.
“The players are back competing with their professional and collegiate teams and are in the midst of their seasons,” Melissa Katz, a spokesperson for USA Hockey, told CBC Sports. “They’re grateful for the invitations and support they’ve received and will engage with opportunities as their schedules permit.”
Meanwhile, the players do plan to celebrate after the season with rapper Flava Flav, who invited the team to Las Vegas after the video of Trump’s call to the men’s team went viral.
“He’s probably my most texted person right now,” U.S. and Seattle Torrent forward Alex Carpenter said on Wednesday. “I think it was definitely super special after everything that’s been going around online to be able to have someone step up like that and really go to bat for us.”
‘The best American team’
The American team was led by a strong cohort of youth, including defenders Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards, and forward Abbey Murphy, who will all likely be top picks at the PWHL draft later this year.
Harvey was named Olympic MVP and best defender after putting up nine points over seven games, tied with U.S. defender Megan Keller for the tournament lead.
Edwards, meanwhile, registered eight points while becoming the first Black American woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
“It’s not something we’re focused on or really thinking about,” Harvey said on Wednesday at a University of Wisconsin press conference, where she was asked if the players felt disrespected or slighted by Trump’s comments.
Team USA women’s hockey players were asked Wednesday whether they felt ‘disrespected or slighted in any way’ by Donald Trump’s phone call to the men’s team, in which players laughed as the U.S. president joked about having to also invite the women’s team to the White House. Defensive player Caroline Harvey said the call is ‘not something we’re focused on’ and that they’re happy to bring home Olympic gold.
“What happened is something we had no control over,” Edwards, who plays with Harvey at Wisconsin, added. “We take so much pride in what we did and we love our group that we’re not going to let anything take that from us.”
The team’s veteran leadership also played a big role in the win.
Knight, competing at her fifth and final Olympics, scored the goal that forced overtime against Canada. Along the way, she set a new record for Olympic goals and points by a member of the American team.
Then, it was Keller, an assistant captain on this team, who scored the overtime winner.
Knight said she wanted to shift the narrative back to her team’s legacy and what they did on the ice together.
Megan Keller scored 4:07 into overtime, as the United States defeated Canada 2-1 to win the Olympic women’s hockey gold medal.
“Granted, the men’s and the women’s team did it together,” Knight said. “That is super special. It’s never been done in our program’s history. It’s something we’re extremely proud about. But these women are amazing, and whatever’s going on should never outshine or minimize their work and our success on the world stage.
“This was the best American women’s hockey team, the best American team, we’ve ever put together on the world stage when the lights have been the brightest.”
U.S. players document long trip home
The U.S. men’s hockey team travelled to and from the Olympics on charter flights organized by the NHLPA.
They flew from Milan, Italy to Miami, where they spent Monday night partying before a military plane took them to Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, members of the U.S. women’s team were booked on commercial flights through their country’s Olympic committee. They flew to Atlanta, due to a storm in New York City, and then to their final destinations, according to USA Hockey.
U.S. forward Taylor Heise, who plays for the PWHL’s Minnesota Frost, posted a screenshot on Instagram that showed her phone’s lock screen, and a timer that recorded her journey home as taking more than 24 hours.
Knight also posted a photo arriving home with her luggage just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
None of it is new for Knight. In addition to being the all-time leading scorer at the world championship, she’s spent years speaking out about the vast differences for men and women in the sport.
Three-time Olympic champion and Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin shook hands and hugged the now two-time Olympic champion and American captain Hilary Knight, after the United States beat Canada 2-1 in overtime of the Olympic women’s hockey final.
In 2017, she was among a group of American players who threatened to sit out that year’s world championship, which was held in the U.S., to fight for “equitable support” from USA Hockey.
The players called for equal treatment to men when it came to “financial compensation, youth team development, equipment, travel expenses, hotel accommodations, meals, staffing, transportation, marketing and publicity.” Even championship rings hadn’t been allocated evenly between men’s and women’s teams.
The team reached an unspecified settlement with USA Hockey, and the Americans went on to win the 2017 world championship.
Two years after that, Knight was one of the women who rallied players to push for the creation of a league that would treat women professionally, after the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded suddenly.
Those efforts turned into the PWHL, and Knight was one of the players who negotiated the players’ first collective agreement with the league’s owners.
Knight and the other U.S. players had taken a page from the U.S. women’s soccer team, which has also spent years fighting for equal treatment from its governing body.
One of those soccer players, Megan Rapinoe, was at the Wednesday press conference to celebrate Knight and her U.S. and Torrent teammates, Carpenter, Cayla Barnes and Hannah Bilka.
Rapinoe, who is now retired from playing soccer, told the crowd that Trump’s phone call said nothing about the players.
“I think everybody who watched that clip or saw that moment said, hell no,” Rapinoe said. “You might not be for everybody. Whatever. But you’re for us. You’re ours here in Seattle. You’re ours here in America.”
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