Only a handful of members of the current U.S. Women’s National Team are old enough to remember watching the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Hilary Knight, the oldest player on this team, was 12 years old and recalls the joy and excitement of such a massive event happening on home soil.
She’s thrilled that a new generation of women’s hockey players, fans and future Olympians will get the same experience now that Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2034 Olympic Winter Games.
“I’m ecstatic. I remember 2002. It’s so special to be able to host the Olympics and now we’re getting to do it again,” Knight said. “I’m really, really excited for Team USA and to showcase to the world this amazing city and amazing country, and to be great, great hosts for the best athletes to come and compete on one stage.”
The 2002 Games were the second time women’s hockey appeared on the Olympic program. The gold-medal game drew 8,599 spectators, but women’s hockey was in its second season as an NCAA-sponsored sport and the PWHL wouldn’t form for another 21 years.
Since then, women’s hockey has grown massively in popularity, but by the time the Games return to Salt Lake City, it will have been 24 years since a Winter Olympics has taken place in the Western Hemisphere.
Knowing that the United States will host the 2034 Olympics brings excitement not just for playing on home soil close to friends and family, but because of the opportunities for visibility and taking women’s hockey to the next level.
When Team USA won gold in 2018 in Pyeongchang, the game ended around 2 a.m. Eastern Time. Even still, the game drew a peak of 2.9 million viewers, but Knight knows that the potential for a women’s hockey gold-medal game in Salt Lake City could be massive for the sport.
“I’ve always been a strong believer that women’s hockey should be in primetime,” Knight said.
Starting in San Jose (Nov. 6), and with the new Utah Hockey Club and 2024 Rivalry Series, presented by Discover, games in Salt Lake City (Nov. 8) and Boise, Idaho (Nov. 10), this month, hockey is at the forefront in the Mountain States. Excitement and engagement are high, setting the area up to be a future hockey hotbed and a great place for Team USA to have home-ice advantage come 2034.
“Once the word gets out and people actually realize how important the sport is and how cool it is to watch and be a part of, it’s going to be something that’s hard to contain,” said Taylor Heise.
The evolving landscape of support for women’s sports means that even though the Games are a decade in the future, it’s impossible not to think about what it could mean to have women’s ice hockey as a premier event, front and center, on broadcast television.
“I’m really excited because all the progress we’ve made off the ice and also on the ice is really helping push the sport forward and working towards making sure that it’s relevant in every single conversation when you talk about sport,” Knight said.
At 35, it’s unlikely Knight herself would be donning the U.S. sweater in 2034, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be involved. She’s not sure what that looks like exactly, but she wants to stay involved in women’s hockey, in the Olympic movement and as a part of Team USA.
She also plans to be a massive fan.
A Salt Lake City resident in the offseason, Knight assumes that if she’s still living there in 2034, she’ll be hosting past teammates for Team USA reunions and joked that she’ll be building bunkbeds, so everyone has somewhere to sleep.
“This is such a unique opportunity,” she said. “And I’m super, super excited.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc
