Hilary Knight on #LikeAGirl, growth of women’s hockey, sting of Sochi (Video)
The last time I spoke with Hilary Knight, she was super pissed off.
It was in the media mix zone in Sochi, a year ago. The U.S. women’s team had lost the gold medal in overtime to their arch rivals from Canada.
Knight had been whistled for a controversial penalty on Canadian forward Halyey Wickenheiser that led to Marie-Phillip Poulin’s game-winning power play goal.
I still remember her voice as a mixture of bitterness, disappointment and exhaustion.
“I didn’t touch her. She fell. It was a bogus call. But it doesn’t rely on one call. We had plenty of opportunity,” she said.
She was devastated. But with time comes understanding, and that gold medal game went down as one of the most memorable moments of the Sochi Games.
How many young women playing hockey around the world saw a player or a play and wondered, even for a moment, if that could be them one day?
Knight felt that way watching the U.S. women’s national team, with players like Cammi Granato. They were her role models, and now she’s like to be one to emerging generations of women athletes.
Knight’s joined the #LikeAGirl campaign started by Always at the Super Bowl, starring in a new video that continues to strip away the negative connotation from playing or acting “like a girl” and empower women to confidently overcome those insults.
“Being a female athlete, I’ve always been sensitive to the phrase ‘Like a Girl,’ especially when I was growing up and was told I couldn’t play with the boys,” she said.
Here’s our discussion about the growth of women’s hockey locally and globally:
Knight plays for the Boston Blades of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, which began its postseason on Wednesday. Knight was named the MVP of the CWHL last season. The playoff games are streaming on the CWHL website.
