The United States women’s Olympic ice hockey team is among us. They’ve been living and practicing in the Boston area since September.
In red, white, and blue TEAM USA uniforms and pads, they’re skating, shooting, stick handling, and even slamming into the boards. The 21 members of the U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team are swirling around the Belmont Hill School’s Olympic-size rink. Five of them are from Massachusetts, which is why they’re training here.
Kacey Bellamy, of Westfield, Mass., said she's been playing hockey since she was 5. Bellamy will play defense in her second Olympics. The team won Silver in Vancouver in 2010.
Bellamy said she’s focused on one thing:
“The gold medal, obviously. Winning. Thinking about that gold medal nonstop when I’m there and having no distractions. It’s the toughest training year that you go through, but building this family so that we get to Sochi and we’re prepared,” she said.
The women's Olympic ice hockey team has quite an age range - from 19 to 31. Some have never been to the Olympics before, but this will be the fourth time for player Julie Chu. Veterans like Chu and goalie Molly Schaus are trying to prepare the younger players.
Shaus, of Natick, is a Boston College grad.
“In Vancouver, we were pretty young and you kind of get caught up in the hype of the Olympics, which is so exciting, it’s such a fun time. But it’s draining, with the opening ceremonies you look around and you’re starstruck. So we’re saying you know what? We deserve to be here, we’re Olympians too and we’re here to compete in a hockey tournament at the end of the day.”
And that’s the attitude coach Katey Stone is encouraging. She’s also hoping security concerns aren’t a distraction for players.
“We’re keeping our eye on the ball honestly and we feel very confident that the Russian and the US government will take good care of us.”
The US women’s ice hockey team leaves on February 1. Their first game is February 8 against Finland.
