US Hockey Captain Meghan Duggan on Legacy of Team's 2018 Gold—and Its Boycott
It doesn't take a hockey expert to recognize that the end of the Olympic women's hockey final was extraordinary: Six rounds into the post-overtime shootout, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson juked Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados right off her skates, and then U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney made the save that won the gold medal.
It was an electrifying win, made all the more so by what the team overcame to get there: not just heartbreak in Sochi—where the U.S. women lost 3-2 to Canada in overtime—but also a prolonged battle with U.S. Hockey over fair compensation that only ended when the players threatened to boycott the IIHF World Championship. U.S. Hockey tried to bring in ringers (even sourcing rec leagues), failed and eventually agreed to match the men's team's travel and insurance provisions and offer a training stipend. The women proceeded to win the world championship and their first Olympic gold medal in the sport in 20 years.
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At the helm through all this has been Meghan Duggan, a member of the national team since 2007 and its captain since 2014. The 30-year-old Massachusetts native spoke to B/R on Thursday about what the win means for women's hockey and how taking a stand together made the team stronger.
B/R: What was your favorite part of this Olympics (besides the obvious)?
Duggan: Definitely the obvious part [laughs]. As you get older, you mature through your habits. It's my third Olympics, and I probably felt the most prepared that I ever have. This time, it was just all about our team. We had a great time every single day, just enjoying the moment. We went to events together on off days: we watched Mirai Nagasu nail her triple axel, we were at curling when they won the gold medal...
B/R: You guys were like a good luck charm!
Duggan: I guess so!
B/R: The U.S. women's hockey team has been internationally dominant in the past few years, even prior to the Olympics. What changed in your guys' mindset to allow you to get to this place?
Duggan: We obviously had a bit of a heartbreak in the last Olympics, came up short of our ultimate goal. As a team and as a program, we just had to re-evaluate where we were at and what we wanted to accomplish. The last three-and-a-half, four years, we've spent answering all those questions and becoming a stronger, better team along the way. We were confident, mentally sharp, physically sharp and just had to put together that total package in the final.
The big story has been that we can win world championships—we won the last three, between Olympics—but we've obviously come up short in the last 20 years in every Olympic Games. That's been our ultimate goal and something we really wanted to achieve, and I'm just so proud of the team that we were able to do it this time.
B/R: What do you remember from watching the last gold-medal-winning U.S. women's hockey team, from Nagano in 1998?
Duggan: I was 10 years old, and I stayed up late with my parents to watch. I didn't go to school the next day because it was so exciting. I'd already been playing for seven or eight years at that point. I got to meet one of the players on that team, Gretchen Ulion—went to an event where she spoke, and she put her gold medal around my neck. I even got to put her jersey on. Someone sent me the picture last week, actually.
I remember from that day forward, I told everyone, "I'm gonna play for Team U.S.A., and I'm going to go to the Olympics and represent my country." I hung things up in my room—a cereal box signed by girls from the team. Now, 20 years later, I have the opportunity to inspire the next generation by doing the same thing: going to schools and talking to kids and letting people wear the medal. Being featured on a Kellogg's cereal box. It's like everything's come full circle.
We want to be those women that inspire young kids to dream big and do great things, just like that team did for us 20 years ago.
B/R: Obviously the game was incredibly suspenseful. Was there any moment when you felt like things might not break your guys' way?
Duggan: No, I don't think so. As an elite athlete, you have to be mentally sharp at all times, whether things are going your way or they're not. Whether you're up a goal or down a goal, it's just part of the game and part of being professional. All year, the team has talked about staying in the moment, sticking to the process, not getting ahead of ourselves...and that was obviously training for that game.
B/R: What do you hope comes from this win for women's hockey as a whole?
Duggan: What's been incredible since we've come back is that everywhere we've been, our country is recognizing our sport. We've wanted everyone to know how amazing women's hockey is our whole lives, because we've been playing it and know that it's a really fast, dynamic, incredible sport. It's exciting for us. With the win, you're given a platform to help inspire the next generation, which is something that we'll use this medal to do.
B/R: How did the boycott change the team, internally?
Duggan: It certainly brought a greater sense of togetherness and unity to our team. We had to go through that together arm-in-arm. We couldn't have a weak link. We had to make sure we were communicating at all times, and on the same page. We had to have challenging conversations with each other to make sure we could figure things out in the right way for the program. It definitely gave us energy and momentum in bonding the team together.
B/R: Was it challenging to become the spokesperson for that movement?
Duggan: To take on a challenge like that, there's certainly some fear. It's scary territory. We were risking a lot. On the flip side, it was something that was so important for us, and something that we were so passionate about, that it made it easier. We wanted to see it through, and we knew that by risking our world championship, that was a way we'd be able to make some progress. Doing it together made it less scary as well.
B/R: Do you feel like this win has given you more of a platform for that kind of advocacy?
Duggan: We talked a lot on our team about what winning a gold medal means to us, and why we wanted to win it. For a lot of athletes, being able to find that deeper purpose and see what you can do with a gold medal once you win it—for us, that's inspiring the next generation. Putting women's hockey more on the map in our country, and to have little girls have someone to look up to and inspire them to be who they want to be.
B/R: Is there any part of it that's vindicating? Winning the first gold in 20 years after they were almost ready to let you walk away?
Duggan: When you do something like that—take a stand as intense and as powerful as we did—you certainly want to be able to prove your worth afterwards. I think coming home with a gold medal and really inspiring, uniting and rallying a nation, as the Olympics do, we proved to ourselves and to a lot of people that this is a really powerful and amazing group of women.
B/R: What do you think is the biggest misconception about women's sports?
Duggan: That we're not as strong or not as fast or not as good as the men. Obviously I'm biased, but I'd certainly beg to differ.
Our team showcased some of the best hockey in the world at this last Games. About 3.5 million people watched our final game, which is more than almost every NHL game last year. To us, that was pretty cool to see.
Obviously we believe that women's hockey is a fast, dynamic sport, and I think we proved that to a lot of people as well.
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