On Sunday, the United States men’s hockey team delivered one of the most dramatic Olympics finales in recent memory, beating Canada 2-1 in overtime. Forty-six years to the day that a scrappy group of underdogs beat a powerhouse Soviet team in the “Miracle on Ice,” Jack Hughes’ golden goal and Connor Hellebuyck’s incredible goaltending provided American fans a rare moment of sheer joy. For a few minutes, we could put aside politics, the ugliness of our government’s actions at home and abroad, and simply celebrate the boys in red, white and blue.
But that moment was fleeting. Shortly after the game, video surfaced of President Donald Trump calling the players to congratulate them and invite them to attend his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. To the audible amusement of at least some of the gathered athletes, the president then joked about having to invite the women’s team, too, or risk being impeached.
And so, many of us — women who love hockey, women who play hockey and fans of all stripes who support women’s sports — were once again reminded that no matter how dominant a women’s team is, how many millions of fans tune in to watch them or how supportive the men’s players may be both internally and publicly, it’s still apparently acceptable to dismiss them within the safety of the men’s locker room.
For a few minutes, we could put aside politics, the ugliness of our government’s actions at home and abroad, and simply celebrate the boys in red, white and blue.
These men really need some new material. The U.S. women’s hockey team, of course, won gold last Thursday, also against Canada, after one of the most dominant Olympic tournaments in recent memory. They outscored opponents 31-1 heading into the gold medal game, posted five straight shutouts and scored up and down the roster. Thursday’s final was the most-watched women’s hockey game in history, averaging 5.3 millions viewers across USA Network and Peacock, with viewership peaking at 7.7 million during overtime. That’s a lot of people who do, in fact, take women’s hockey seriously.
What we saw from our women’s hockey team mirrored what we saw throughout this Olympics from Team USA. American athletes won a historic 12 gold medals and 33 overall medals at Milano-Cortina. American women won six of those golds and 17 medals in individual events, and another two golds and four overall in mixed-gender events. It was the third straight Winter Olympics in which American women bested American men in both the gold and overall medal counts, a trend we’ve also seen in the Summer Games.
We were quick to celebrate these women, and rightfully so. Alysa Liu delivered the first gold in women’s figure skating since 2002, and she did it her way. Elana Meyers Taylor won a record-tying sixth medal with the gold that had yet eluded her in women’s monobob. Mikaela Shiffrin completed the comeback by winning her third gold, reminding us exactly who she is: The greatest Alpine skier we’ve ever seen.
It’s such a shame that the games had to end on such a low note. Maybe that crass scene in the men’s hockey locker room would be easier to swallow if the Trump administration hadn’t also used the women’s team earlier in the Olympics as a prop for its photo ops. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended a few of the women’s group stage games, conveniently benefiting from the optics and goodwill of Team USA.
Then again, these are the same men who also repeatedly use women’s sports as a political cudgel, claiming to “protect” them from transgender athletes. These are also some of the same men who have repeatedly tried to limit the effectiveness and enforcement of Title IX, the law most singularly responsible for the growth of women’s sports in the last 50 years.
It’s all so unnecessary, an own-goal of epic proportions. Speaking with the Daily Mail, Hughes, the hero of the gold medal game, argued that the whole thing has been blown out of proportion, making “something out of almost nothing … I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them, and we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us.”
Maybe that’s true. But it’s increasingly difficult to watch sports without an eye toward the cultural or political dynamics on display. On the last day of the Olympics, many fans were able to put aside their feelings about personal politics and just celebrate this win as Americans. And then we were snapped right back to reality.
The men’s hockey team did attend tonight’s address — they paraded through the House gallery like conquering heroes. (Trump also announced Hellebuyck would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.) The women’s team did not — they sadly had to decline, citing “previously scheduled academic and professional commitments.” Well played.
Ultimately, the Olympics is always a display of contrasts and contradictions. It is a beautiful, global event in which the most superhuman among us prove what the body is capable of, and despite the fierce competition, humanity, sportsmanship and camaraderie are put on display.
This year, Ilia Malinin and Amber Glenn reminded us just how unforgiving a sport like figure skating is. Trump and the U.S. men’s hockey team reminded us that being a fan can be unforgiving, too.
