Turin – Angela Ruggiero wanted to return from the Olympics with something a little better than a bronze medal – and now that’s not even a guarantee.
The American women finish their hockey season in the third-place match against Finland today, and they’re doing their best to get excited – even for the kind of game they’ve never played, not in 16 years of international competition.
After winning gold medals in Nagano in 1998 and silver in Salt Lake City in 2002, Ruggiero isn’t looking forward to her first consolation game and its tarnished reward.
“Oh, I get the complete set,” the defenseman said sarcastically. “We’re going to bring home bronze. Is it a guarantee? I don’t know.”
Ruggiero is full of self-effacing humor these days: She points out that the Americans’ four three-time Olympians have been on a steady career decline since that perfect day in Japan.
But it was impossible to avoid. For Ruggiero, Katie King, Tricia Dunn-Luoma and Jenny Potter, everything in their hockey lives has been something of an anticlimax after winning their sport’s first gold medals eight years ago.
They won’t return to the U.S. as heroes, as they did then in a whirl of attention and excitement. Led by charismatic captain Cammi Granato, the team amplified a boom of interest in women’s sports that extended to the U.S. soccer team’s famous victory in the 1999 World Cup.
“I think we did a lot of good for hockey and for women in general,” King said. “I guess in a way, there’s really nowhere to go but down, but I’ve enjoyed every year I’ve been able to play on this team. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Except, of course, the Americans’ dismal performance in Friday’s 3-2 shootout loss to Sweden in the semifinals.
Canada will face Sweden in the gold-medal game.
“We have no pressure,” said Kim Martin, the 19-year-old goaltender who turned in a 37-save performance against the Americans. “Sweden wasn’t supposed to be part of this game. They have all the pressure. If we can beat the U.S., we can beat Canada.”
Still, it doesn’t look good for Sweden, which lost 8-1 to Canada last week and has marched through the tournament, outscoring its four opponents 42-1.
