Hayley Wickenheiser
Hayley Wickenheiser
Hayley Wickenheiser OCis a Canadian women's ice hockey player. She was the first woman to play full-time professional hockey in a position other than goalie. Wickenheiser is a member of the Canada women's national ice hockey team. She has represented Canada at the Winter Olympics five times, capturing four gold and one silver medal and twice being named tournament MVP, and one time at the Summer Olympics in softball. She has the most gold medals of any Canadian Olympian and...
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth12 August 1978
CityShaunavon, Canada
Many times I had to dig deep and perform. All of that adversity helped me and drove me to want to be the best.
I hear they had our flag on their dressing room floor. I wonder if they'd like us to sign it?
I'm really happy that it's in Russia. I've had a lot of success here. I had my first world championships here when I was younger so I am happy to do the Olympics here. I am really enjoying myself.
Am I worried? Sure, I'm worried. When it comes to the Olympics, it can't be a predictable finish.
We expected Italy to be weak, but we're not going to apologize for winning.
We expected Italy to be weak. I don't know if we would have predicted that score, but we're not going to apologize for winning by that much. It's the Olympic Games and we've got a gold medal to try and win.
To be Olympic champions for the second time in a row is great. It's definitely harder to defend gold than to win it.
We've been in pressure games a lot over the years, so we're used to it. We, by no means, think we've got this thing in the bag.
We are completely prepared. If we don't beat ourselves, we'll be fine.
To defend the gold for our team and every Canadian back home is huge. For us, it's all gold or nothing. There's no other medal to win in this tournament. That's the pressure we put on ourselves. We're just happy we can land in Canada with everybody smiling.
You'd never see that on a men's team with a little baby on the bus who is crying at midnight. All the girls enjoy having him around. It's refreshing if it makes her feel comfortable, we're fine with it.
We're expecting to go over and win the gold and defend the gold medal. Anything less would be disappointing for us. We know what we have to do. It's just a matter of doing it on the day when it counts the most.
What you'd like to see from a young player is they have to come into camp confident enough to take somebody's spot. You see that a lot more in men's hockey than you do in the women's game.
We haven't faced a lot of adversity in our own end, but I'm sure they'll be fired up when they hear that comment. They'll be ready to go.