GOLD OR FAILURE FOR HOCKEY ACE KNIGHT

California-born Knight is just 28 years old, but has been a mainstay of the USA team since 2007. “I've loved ice hockey from the moment I started, aged five. I went to bed wearing my kit and I slept with pucks under my pillow because I was convinced it would bring me luck. For me, there’s nothing more exhilarating.”

Knight has always been a prolific forward, starting in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association with the University of Wisconsin, before moving on to Canada (Canadian Women’s Hockey League) with the Boston Blades, and then to her current club Boston Pride (National Women’s Hockey League) in 2015, where she ended her first season as the league's top goalscorer. Her international career and competing at the Olympic Games remain her primary focus, however. “I've always wanted to go to the Winter Games,” she says. “In high school, I realised I had the talent to do it. When I failed to make the Olympic team in 2006, I told myself 'Okay, this is the last time I fail’.”

“If we don't win gold, we've failed”

A second Olympic silver medal was scant consolation: “The only word I can really use to describe it is ‘heart-breaking’,” muses Knight. “You invest so much, and it’s not only you, it’s your family, and there’s so much emotional baggage that goes into it. And on top of that you’re playing for your country and you’re representing them. It took some of us a few months to get over it. But then we were like, ‘Okay, we have one more shot at this and we need to bring back a gold medal.’ So, it’s gold or bust in PyeongChang for Team USA.”

“Everything I do on a daily basis is for PyeongChang,” says Knight. That includes collecting three more world championship gold medals. Her fifth came in 2015 in Malmö (SWE), where she was top goalscorer and MVP; the sixth in Kamloops (CAN) in 2016; and the seventh in Plymouth (USA) in April 2017.

These latest triumphs merely help to highlight the glaring absence of an Olympic gold medal. “Every single choice is like, ‘Is this getting me closer to PyeongChang? Is this getting me closer to not only our team goals, but personal goals as well?’” reflects Knight.

When she and her US team-mates arrive in the Republic of Korea as reigning four-time world champions, they will do so with a steely determination to avoid another Olympic heartbreak.

Photo and Source by: olympic.org