U.S Women’s Hockey Gold Medalist Hilary Knight Shares Classy Response to Locker Room Snub

The Seattle Torrent forward stated she and her teammates are ‘focusing on celebrating all great things that have come out of the Olympics,’ regardless of a ‘distasteful joke.’

Hilary Knight / Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

A locker room moment has been the talk of the internet over the last several days. Following the U.S. men’s hockey team’s victory over Canada in a nail-biting overtime match during the Milan Cortina Games on Sunday, Feb. 22, President Trump issued a phone call to the team to congratulate its members on their victory and invite them to attend his State of the Union address.

However, in addition to praising their “unbelievable” victory, he used the moment to put down the U.S. women’s hockey team, who also beat Canada in overtime by a score of 2-1 in their own gold medal-winning victory on Thursday, Feb. 19.

“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump stated, which received a roar of laughter from the locker room. “I do believe I probably would be impeached [if I didn’t].”

The moment has since gone viral, and while the U.S. men’s hockey team did attend Tuesday’s State of the Union—with the exception of Brock Nelson, Jake Oettinger, Jackson LaCombe, Jake Guentzel and Kyle Conner, all of whom declined—the women’s team collectively turned down the invite.

Hilary Knight, a five-time Olympian and the team’s captain, scored the goal that would tie the game and send the competition into overtime. The Seattle Torrent forward spoke with SportsCenter on Wednesday, Feb. 25, and among other topics, addressed the belittling locker room moment with grace.

“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, you know, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” she told ESPN. “And so we’re just trying to focus on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time, and really not detract from that with a distasteful joke.”

Meanwhile, rapper and TV personality Flavor Flav has invited Knight and her teammates, as well as all female Olympic and Paralympic medalists, to celebrate their victories with him in Las Vegas. Since then, brands like Knix, Lyft, Wildfang, Topgolf, Divi, Zenni Optical, Honey Baked Ham and more have chimed in to share their excitement over participating in the forthcoming celebration.

“ ... We’re really focusing on celebrating all great things that have come out of the Olympics and feeling the love and the support and getting back in our respective communities and sharing this journey with them,” Knight added. “And that’s what it’s all about and that’s what makes this moment super special.”

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