The 2026 Winter Olympics it should be a good time for American hockey. Both the men’s and women’s teams won gold. The game was already in the midst of a cultural boom, fueled in part by the massive fandom that had emerged. Fierce competitiona series of intense episodes that made hockey rereadable for viewers who never cared much for it before. In the weeks leading up to the Games, ice hockey was trending on Google. The women joked about going to the “boy’s aquarium,” turning the arena into a sort of female-watching fest.
And yet, as the men’s hockey team celebrated its historic gold, beating Canada in nail-biting overtimeA phone call to the locker room with President Donald Trump broke the spotlight.
What should have been a shared moment of national pride instead became something more familiar. Through a speakerphone, FBI Director Kash Patel holding a phone in the locker room, Trump invited the team to the White House and joked that he would “probably be impeached” if he didn’t invite the gold medal-winning women’s team, relegating their victory to the political sidelines. The players laughed. The video went viral. And just like that, the main force in American hockey – women – was no longer placed in the center of the story, but on the sidelines.
Online, the response was immediate. The clip quickly moved through the same feeds that helped turn hockey into a cultural moment.
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American women’s hockey has long been the game’s international standard-bearer. Since women’s hockey was introduced to the Olympics in 1998, The United States has won a medal in every Gamesincluding much gold, and has frequently been one of the two defining powers along with Canada. Their victory in Milan, where they also beat Canada in extra timeit was not a surprise. It was a continuation of almost three decades of dominance – and part of a larger structure in these Olympics, where women. contributed to eight of Team USA’s 12 gold medals.
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Throughout the Games, women also formed the emotional core of the Olympics. Figure skater Alysa Liu’s fun on the ice felt almost contagious, his the joy that is seen in every movement. As she entered the podium, she celebrated with the silver and bronze medalists from Team Japan, smiling and pulling them into a hug in a moment that felt inclusive rather than elite, a reminder that victory doesn’t have to come at someone else’s expense.
It was the kind of victory that made the game feel big, not small.
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But that spirit of inclusion coexisted with a harsher reality.
Tensions were already running throughout these Olympics. Several Team USA athletes, including figure skater Amber Glenn and freestyle athlete Hunter Hess, had he spoke openly about their discomfort representing the country in the current political climate, especially when immigration enforcement policies and ICE raids increased back home. Hess, who became an unlikely stick after criticizing the administration, made it clear in a press conference: “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in America” Responding, Trump. called him a “real loser” on Social Realityand Hess said he used the president’s comments as motivation during his qualifying round.
Meanwhile, the women’s hockey team rejected Trump’s fake invitation to the Palace.
of Trump relationship with athletesespecially women, has long been fraught. He has done it in public the target is famous female athletes who criticized him and he falsely questioned the legitimacy of previous women’s Olympic competitors. That history made his bedroom conversation different. To many who watched, it was seen as part of a larger pattern of declining women, even in a time of undeniable success.
The same screens that welcomed women to hockey also showed where they are still standing – outside the glass.
