The 2026 Winter Olympics was supposed to be a great moment 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 huge fandom that had built up around it. Hot Competitiona breakout series that made hockey rereadable for an audience that never cared about it before. In the weeks leading up to the Games, ice hockey was trending on Google. Women make fun of going to the “boy aquarium,” turning the rink into a kind of women’s spectacle.
However, as the men’s hockey team celebrated its historic gold, edging Canada in nail-biting overtime, a blood-curdling phone call with President Donald Trump shattered that glow.
What should have been a shared moment of national pride has instead become something more familiar. On the phone, with FBI Director Kash Patel on the phone in the locker room, Trump invited the group to the White House and joked that he would “probably be impeached” if he didn’t invite the gold medal-winning women’s team, downplaying their political victory. The players laughed. The video went viral. And just like that, the most dominant force in American hockey – women – has not been repositioned at the center of the story, but at its margins.
Online, the reaction was immediate. The clip went viral on the same feed that helped turn hockey into a cultural moment.
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American women’s hockey has long dominated the sport around the world. Since the introduction of women’s hockey to the Olympics in 1998, the US has won a medal at every Games, including multiple golds, and has been one of the top two nations alongside Canada. Their victory in Milan, where they beat Canada again in overtime, was no surprise. It was a continuation of a nearly three-decade reign — and part of a larger pattern at these Olympics, where women accounted for eight of Team America’s 12 gold medals.
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In all these sports, women have also shaped the core of the Olympics. Photographer Alysa Liu’s joy on the ice was almost contagious, her joy evident in every move. As he climbed to the podium, he celebrated alongside Team Japan’s silver and bronze medalists, smiling and pulling them into a hug for a moment that felt like it brought everyone together instead of one after the other, a reminder that victory doesn’t have to be paid for by someone else.
It was the kind of victory that made this game feel big, not small.
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But that spirit of inclusivity existed along with a complex reality.
The tension was already high throughout these Olympics. Several Team USA athletes, including figure skater Amber Glenn and freestyler Hunter Hess, have spoken openly about their discomfort representing the country amid the current political climate, especially as immigration enforcement policies and ICE raids intensify at home. Hess, who became an unexpected lightning rod after criticizing the administration, put it bluntly at a press conference: “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s happening in the US.” In response, Trump called him a “real loser” on Truth Social, and Hess said he used the president’s comments as motivation during his tour.
Meanwhile, the women’s hockey team rejected Trump’s indirect invitation to the White House.
Trump’s relationship with athletes, especially women, has long been strained. He has publicly targeted prominent female athletes who criticized him and falsely questioned the eligibility of female Olympic competitors in the past. That history makes his locker room speech happen in a different way. To many observers, it feels like part of a larger pattern of women’s decline, even in times of undeniable success.
The same screens that welcomed women to hockey also showed them where they stood – just outside the glass.
