Team USA goalie Maddie Rooney was 7 months and 10 days old when the U.S. women's hockey team last won Olympic gold.
Really. It had been that long.
It wasn't just that the U.S. couldn't quite win the gold over the past 20 years, it was the way in which the Americans didn't win the gold. Take Sochi in 2014, for example: The U.S. was up two goals going into the final five minutes of the game, only to have Canada come roaring back and snatch an overtime victory. I will never forget captain Meghan Duggan in the mixed zone after the game, tears streaming down her face, barely able to recount the emotion of being so close to that golden moment.
In the months leading into these 2018 Winter Games, various players on the U.S. team would say to me, this time it will be different. This time it feels different. This time it will be ours. Maybe it was the flames coming out of their mouths as they said it, but you didn't need a Ph.D. in psychology to know it would indeed be different. This team was not to be denied. And here is why.
When you go through an equitable support battle against your own federation like these women did last year, there's a bond formed with your teammates that's unlike anything else. We fought a similar battle with the U.S. women's national soccer team in the late 1990s against U.S. Soccer. And let me tell you, fighting that battle is beyond scary, which is why so few teams are able to pull it off successfully.
You are essentially saying, as a group of players, we care more about the future of our sport than the immediate self-gratification of playing in a world championship or an Olympics. We are willing to stand at the edge of an abyss and sacrifice our own personal dreams to grow the game. Imagine the mental (and intestinal) fortitude it requires to say to your federation: I will not play unless things change. And even more powerful: We as a team will not play until you change. The only thing that gets you through this terrifying experience is holding on tight to your teammates and knowing with certainty that you are in it together.
And as the USA Hockey women would say when seeking courage in times of turbulence: "We didn't come this far, to come this far." And by that second "far" they meant, where we are going damn well needs to be better than where we are.
USA Hockey eventually renegotiated their contracts and increased its level of support for the women's side of the program, but it took the players having to place their dreams in peril to get it done. It should not take such action, of course, but the byproduct is something very familiar to this nation by now: Do not mess with a woman scorned. And certainly don't mess with a team of them.
Feeling unified is a powerful emotion. Feeling unified and empowered is a golden reality.
This win did more than just ease the pain of the last 20 years. This win showed a nation what strong women look and act like. This win showed a whole new generation that they too can be that girl with a bold dream and fiery breath. This win will do what the 1998 hockey team did, but with a multiplier effect: It will show young girls and boys everywhere that magic happens if and when you are courageous enough to chase it.
