fitness · Olympics · sexism

US Men’s Hockey needs a(nother) remedial course on respect for their female colleagues

This year at the Milan Olympics, the US women’s and US men’s teams both won gold medals against Canada. Yes, the men’s result was controversial, but I’m not here to talk about that. Although feel free to advocate for your team in the comments.

In this post, I come to bury the 2026 US Olympic men’s hockey team, not to praise them. Well, bury them via outing them for misogynist yucking it up with the US misogynist-in-chief, Donald Trump, who called them to:

  • congratulate them on their victory;
  • discuss travel arrangements, supposedly courtesy of the American military;
  • dangle the prospect of White house swag for them;
  • mock the US Olympic women’s hockey team, which also won their gold medal match against Canada (uncontroversially), prompting what sounded like near-universal approving laughter from the players.

Here’s what CNN reported about the locker room phone call:

[After inviting the men’s team to the White House for Tuesday night] Trump added: “I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team — you do know that.” If they weren’t invited, the president said, “I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?”

Members of the team laughed.

Uh, hold on a minute here.

Nadine from Unsplash wants us to just stop now, for a minute. Let's do that. image of a woman's hand indicating stop.
Nadine from Unsplash wants us to just stop now, for a minute. Let’s do that.

For the record, the US Women’s Olympic hockey teams have the following medal count since 2000:

  • 2026 Milano-Cortina: Gold Medal (def. Canada 2-1, OT)
  • 2022 Beijing: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 3-2)
  • 2018 Pyeongchang: Gold Medal (def. Canada 3-2, SO)
  • 2014 Sochi: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 3-2, OT)
  • 2010 Vancouver: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 2-0)
  • 2006 Torino: Bronze Medal (def. Finland 4-0)
  • 2002 Salt Lake City: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 3-2)

That’s a total of 7 medals: 2 gold, 4 silver, one bronze since 2000 for the US women’s teams.

What about the US Men’s Olympic hockey teams? Here is their post-2000 medal count:

  • 2026 (Milan-Cortina): Gold (6-0-0).
  • 2010 (Vancouver): Silver (5-1-0)
  • 2002 (Salt Lake City) Silver Medal

Adding it up, the men’s teams have won a total of 3 medals: one gold, two silver since 2000.

The 7-medals-vs-3-medals fact is one reason among many for the US men’s hockey team, instead of laughing along with and joining in on the sexist bashing of their fellow athletes, should instead:

This bears repeating.

  • Sit down and shut up.
  • Listen for a change.
  • Then do the right thing.

Words to live by for all of us. But especially for these US male hockey players right now.

Hope you enjoyed the first half of the 2026 Olympic Games. The 2026 Paralympic Winter Games run March 6–15. I’m looking forward to them.

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