Sun Valley resident Hilary Knight will compete this year with the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team along with 20 other players. The announcement came New Year’s Day in Michigan during the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.
Knight says she was notified a week ago that she’d made the team, but had to keep it secret until Wednesday.
“Being able to be on stage in front of 105,000 people and hear your name that you’re going to represent your country at the Winter Olympic Games in Russia is such a surreal feeling,” she says.
Knight has lived all over the U.S., but she’s called Sun Valley, Idaho home for the past 15 years. She’s currently training in Boston before leaving for Germany and then on to Sochi, Russia in February.
Knight says she was 5-years-old when she set her sights on being an Olympian. By age 20, Knight made her Olympic debut at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. That year, the women’s ice hockey team won a silver medal.
“After suffering the tough defeat and heart break in the gold medal game in 2010, we all made this silent pact saying 'okay, in the next four years it’s business and we’re going to go back and win a gold medal in Russia,'” Knight says.
Now, four years later, she’s ready for her second Winter Games. She describes the team as split between veteran players, like herself, and first-time Olympians. Knight says the team is stronger and faster than the 2010 team.
“If you were to describe us in one word, it would be dynamic,” says Knight.
Copyright 2014 Boise State Public Radio