Hilary Knight, the captain of the gold medal-winning U.S. women's Olympic hockey team, criticized President Donald Trump in remarks to reporters after Trump made headlines for what she described as a "distasteful" joke at her team's expense.
Most members of the U.S. men's ice hockey team joined Trump at the White House on Tuesday but their visit was dogged by controversy when Trump phoned them Sunday night to invite them to attend his State of the Union address and quipped that failing to invite the women as well might "get him impeached."
Americans had beaten Canada to claim gold in Thursday’s Olympic women’s hockey final but Trump didn't celebrate that when he said the following via speakerphone while FBI Director Kash Patel partied with the men's team following their own gold medal victory:
"I’ll tell you what, I just told my people two minutes ago, I said, we’re giving the State of the Union speech Tuesday night. I could send a military plane or something, but if you would like to, it’s the coolest night."
"We’ll get Kash or we’ll get the military to get you guys. What would really be cool, and we’ll do the White House next time, we’ll just have some fun, we have medals for you guys. And we have to, I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team, you do know that?”
“I do believe that I would probably be impeached [if the women’s team was not invited]."
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
The day after that phone call, a USA Hockey spokesperson said the U.S. women's hockey team would decline Trump's invitation:
“We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal–winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement. Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate.”
“They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment."
Now Knight, a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose 15 goals and 33 total points rank as the highest ever by an American hockey player at the Winter Games, spoke to reporters alongside fellow Olympians Alex Carpenter, Hannah Bilka, and Cayla Barnes at the Seattle Space Needle, as they prepared to resume play with the Seattle Torrent in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
She said:
“I just thought the joke was distasteful and unfortunate, and I think just the way women are represented, it’s a great teaching point to really shine light on how women should be championed for their amazing feats. Now I have to sit in front of you... and explain someone else's behavior. It's not my responsibility."
"But what is [my responsibility] is shifting the focus and shifting the narrative of this amazing accomplishment that we all did together. Granted, the men's and the women's team did it together. It's extremely special. It's never been done in our program's history. It's something we're extremely proud about."
"These women are amazing and what's going on should never outshine or minimize their work and our success on the world stage. This was the best American women's hockey team, the best American team we've ever put together on the world stage when the lights have been the brightest—ever—and so I think everybody felt that going through the tournament."
"I want to celebrate. I want people to be remembered for that. I want the legacy of this team to be remembered and so that's what I'm trying to shift the narrative on and really focusing and really championing what we've done and we've accomplished the last two and a half weeks together."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Many applauded her remarks.
Interestingly, the women's hockey team will be celebrated in July by none other than rapper Flavor Flav, who is a big hypeman for women's sports.
The rapper announced on his X account yesterday that he plans to host a “She Got Game” weekend from July 16–19 in partnership with MGM Resorts. According to the post, the event is intended to celebrate the U.S. women’s hockey team and other female athletes, with additional details expected later.
A person familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press that the players coordinated their acceptance of the invitation independently, without involvement from USA Hockey. The source spoke anonymously because the conversations were private.
When asked for her thoughts on the invite, Knight's teammate Alex Carpenter said it "was definitely super special, after everything that’s been going around online, to have someone step up like that and really go to bat for us."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Flav, a longtime advocate for women’s sports who attended several Olympic events this month, first posted the invitation Monday, shortly after the team declined a visit to Washington.
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