U.S.A. Hockey Has A Problem: An Opinion

Last Thursday, the U.S. women’s ice hockey team faced rivals Canada in the Olympic gold medal match. In overtime, the U.S. put the game away with a golden goal by Megan Keller, and the team won gold. When the U.S. men’s national hockey team also won gold days later, I looked up both wins to write a joint article: What I saw was not only disappointing but damning.

Almost all the search results for the women’s victory were not about the game itself; instead, they focused on the women’s team declining an invitation from President Donald Trump to attend the State of the Union (SOTU). In a call with the men’s team after their win Sunday night, Trump had congratulated the team for winning its first gold medal since 1980 and invited them to attend the SOTU. In an utterly bizarre comment, the President added that he must also invite the women’s team, or he would “probably be impeached.” His remarks were mostly met with laughter, though some players in the video are heard affirming that the women’s team deserves to be invited, saying “absolutely” and “two-for-two.” Even some players like Jack Hughes, who scored the overtime winner for the men’s team, have come out afterwards to publicly support the women’s team after the moment went viral.

The disrespect shown to the women’s ice hockey team here is disheartening for a team that has historically dominated the Olympic event. The women’s team has medaled every single Olympics since the event’s inception in 1998. The men’s team has not. The women’s team has the same amount of gold medals as the men’s — three — despite the men’s event starting in 1920. The women’s team swept nearly every team that came its way this year, excluding a 5-1 win against Czechia in the group stage and in the gold medal match. The men’s team didn’t sweep any team this year and nearly lost to Sweden in the quarter finals. The women’s team has won either gold or silver at the Olympics, except in 2006, when it won bronze. The last time the men’s team won a medal, excluding this year, was in 2010. The year before that? 2002. And after? 1980. The women’s team has won eight medals since 1980, compared to the men’s four. 

This article is not to diminish the men’s team and its success — winning gold at the Olympics is no easy feat. This fact alone, though, should only make fans and U.S. patriots wonder why President Trump would diminish a team that has made its event look like a cake walk. With both ice hockey teams winning gold, why must we put one team down to praise another? This should not be a binary situation that forces Americans to love one team or the other. Both teams triumphed over Canada in the gold medal match. Both teams won 2-1 in overtime. There is no real distinction between these two teams, yet the President has praised one while the other was reduced to a joke for the other team to laugh at. 

The women’s hockey team has been excellent at the Olympics every four years. In the 2026 Winter Olympics, not only did the women’s team share the spotlight with the men’s, but it did so without complaints. Even after the President’s discouraging remarks, the team and its players have not spoken badly about the men’s team or the President. The women’s team, though, did decline the President’s offer to attend the SOTU. When the team wins gold at the Olympics, it still somehow loses legitimacy and ends up as the butt of a joke.

The Olympics are a time when countries rally around their most dedicated and talented athletes as they compete for the glory of their country. In what should be a moment of unity, the United States has divided and excluded one of its most prestigious and successful teams. While women’s sports have taken extraordinary strides in U.S. culture over the past few decades, moments like these underscore that much more must be done to address issues of legitimacy — both among the public and at the highest levels of leadership, including the President himself.