The U.S. women’s hockey team ended a 20-year Olympics spell to beat the Canadians and take home the gold medal and Hilary Knight scored the team’s first goal.
Before she helped pave the way in the winter Olympics in South Korea, she put in the work at Wallingford’s Choate Rosemary Hall.
“The on-ice training, the off-ice training, all of the little things that go into it,” former teammate and Choate varsity hockey coach Nicole Stock said while describing Knight’s dedication. “[There are] sacrifices you make in order to get to that level.”
Stock graduated from Choate in 2005 and knows the U.S. gold medal win was a long-time coming. The U.S. had lost to Canada in almost every Olympics since 1998.
“As a lot of players mentioned, it was gold or bust this year,” said Stock.
Today’s generation of Choate varsity hockey players weren’t alive the last time the U.S. women won gold, but that didn’t stop them from paying close attention.
“That was what the girls were talking about [on the bus from an away game],” said Stock. “The U.S., and winning that medal and [it being] the elusive piece.”
