Brianna Decker retires from hockey

Brianna Decker, a star forward on the 2018 U.S. Olympic champion hockey team and a three-time Olympic medalist, announced her retirement from the sport at age 31.

In her final career game, Decker suffered a broken left fibula and torn ankle ligaments less than 10 minutes into last year’s Olympic opener against Finland. Decker stayed with the team through its silver-medal run.

Decker, a Wisconsin native, made her senior national team debut at the 2008 Four Nations Cup at age 17. In 2009, after her senior year of high school, she was third-youngest of the 41 players who essentially tried out for the 2010 Olympic team, but she did not make the cut.

She matriculated at the University of Wisconsin and in 2012 won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the NCAA’s top player.

Decker played in her first of eight consecutive world championships in 2011, including winning tournament MVP in 2017.

She then made her first Olympic team in 2014. Decker co-led the U.S. with six points in Sochi en route to a silver medal.

She was an alternate captain on the 2018 team that won the U.S.’ first Olympic hockey title since women’s hockey’s debut at the 1998 Nagano Games. A tenacious, 5-foot-4 forward, she played on the top line with Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield.

After coming back from double groin and double sports hernia surgery in October 2019, she was the third-oldest player on the 2022 Olympic roster behind Knight and Megan Bozek. She was on the second line of forwards with Amanda Kessel and Alex Carpenter.

Decker held the U.S. record of 40 career world championship assists until Coyne Schofield broke it last year.

She moved into coaching in the later years of her playing career. She was an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s U18 team at world championships in 2019, 2020 and this past January.

This past August, she was named girls prep associate head coach and special advisor to the Shattuck-St. Mary’s hockey program in Faribault, Minnesota, where she played in high school.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

More: Olympics

U.S. hockey captain Kendall Coyne Schofield is pregnant, plans return to... Lindsey Jacobellis becomes oldest world championships medalist in snowboard... Mikaela Shiffrin resumes World Cup wins record chase this weekend

Brianna Decker retires from hockey originally appeared on NBCSports.com