Defender Claire Thompson Is Going for Gold With Canada’s National Women’s Hockey Team

The professional athlete, who set an Olympic ice hockey record during the 2022 Beijing Games, is looking to secure her second straight gold medal.

Claire Thompson / Courtesy of PWHL

Claire Thompson already has an Olympic medal to her name, but the Canadian ice hockey player is gearing up for another chance at gold with the Milan Cortina Games.

During the 2022 Beijing Games, Thompson set the Olympic ice hockey record for points by a defender with 13 points on two goals and 11 assists in seven games. Thompson and Team Canada brought home gold four years ago, and the 26-year-old athlete is approaching this year’s competition with the same goal in mind—along with a renewed sense of confidence.

“ The Olympics are the pinnacle of sports, so any time you get the opportunity to represent Canada in an international competition, but especially one as big as the Olympics, it’s really exciting,” Thompson, who has been playing her sport since the age of 4, tells SI Lifestyle.

In addition to representing her native Canada in the Olympics this winter, Thompson is a member of the Vancouver Goldeneyes of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL)—and her journey to the PWHL has been a unique and inspirational one.

Thompson’s path to the PWHL

After graduating from Princeton University with a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2020, Thompson initially put her professional hockey dreams on ice to pursue a career in the medical field. Following the Beijing Olympics, the Toronto native enrolled at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and opted to play in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) while attending medical school. When the PWHL formed in August 2023, Thompson had already committed to her studies and opted not to play in the league’s inaugural season.

Thompson didn’t stay away from the ice for long, though. She officially declared for the 2024 PWHL Draft in April of that year, and in doing so, put her medical career on hold. After being drafted to the Minnesota Frost in June 2024, she played in 30 games throughout the 2024-25 regular season, racking up four goals and 14 assists. She and her teammates went on to win the league’s coveted Walter Cup Championship after defeating the Ottawa Charge in a 3-1 series in May 2025.

Last summer, Thompson signed a one-year contract with the PWHL’s Vancouver expansion team as a free agent. While the PWHL started with six teams for its inaugural season in 2024, expansion teams in Seattle and Vancouver were announced in April 2025, following the league’s Takeover Tour, which tested attendance and interest in new markets like Denver, Detroit, Raleigh and St. Louis.

Claire Thompson / Courtesy of PWHL

The PWHL’s 2025-26 regular season began in November ‘25, and as of press time, the Goldeneyes are ranked No. 6 in the league. Despite a shaky start, Thompson says Vancouver has embraced the Goldeneyes with open arms, and both of the PWHL’s expansion teams are leading the league in ticket sales.

 “The goal is always a Walter Cup,” Thompson says of where her head is at halfway through the regular season. “We were adjusting to some growing pains, being a new expansion team early this season, but I think we have a really talented and a really special group in our locker room.”

While Thompson ultimately decided to step back from her studies to join the PWHL during the league’s second year, returning to medical school is not out of the question. She is inspired by fellow athletes like Makenna Webster, an ice hockey and field hockey player who is putting her PWHL dreams on hold to pursue her goal of representing the U.S. women’s national field hockey team at the 2028 Summer Olympics. She also cites her Goldeneyes teammate, Abby Boreen, who is in pharmacy school, as another great example of women who are demonstrating how to pursue career paths both on and off the ice. Thompson, who has dreams of being an orthopedic surgeon, says she’s taking things “one season at a time.”

Going for gold (again)

While the Milan Cortina Games’ preliminary rounds of women’s ice hockey begin today, Canada’s match against Finland has been postponed due to several Finnish players contracting norovirus. The game has been rescheduled for Thursday, Feb. 12. Ahead of the rescheduled match, Team Canada will first face off against Switzerland on Saturday, Feb. 7.

Of the women who make up this year’s Canadian women’s national ice hockey team, all 23 athletes are PWHL players. And while the majority of them are familiar faces, like Thompson, seven will be making their Olympic debut in Milan Cortina.

“ The group is really familiar. Obviously, there are some new faces, some first-time Olympians,” Thompson says. “ ... I think that the PWHL is the best women’s hockey in the world, so I think that it’s great that we’re drawing from an amazing talent pool and I think we have a really good group.”

While the PWHL has seen a 52.5% increase in attendance during the league’s 2024-25 season, now is the perfect time to start tuning in to women’s professional ice hockey, if you’re not already.

 “The Olympics will showcase the best women’s hockey available,” Thompson guarantees. “I think the PWHL is the best pro league, but I think when you group players by countries, you have some superpowers ad I think that the game, at least from my experience, is definitely faster in the international game and I think it’s amazing hockey to watch.”

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