With this morning’s gripping 2-1 win by the U.S. men’s ice hockey team over Canada at the Milan Olympics, the United States is at a unique moment in history.
Right now, the United States holds the lion’s share of world-level championships in ice hockey. The U.S. men hold the Olympic title as well as the IIHF World Championship. The U.S. women hold the Olympic championship, thanks to another overtime win over Canada last week. They also hold the 2025 IIHF World Championship, which had been contested last April.
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The U.S. sled hockey team is the defending Paralympic champion and will start play in a few days in Milan. In addition, the U.S. men’s sledge team won the most recent Para Hockey world championship with a 6-1 win over Canada in a game held in Buffalo. In addition, the U.S. women’s sled hockey team won the inaugural Women’s World Championship last year.
That the United States is currently holding the top seven senior national team titles in world-level ice hockey is absolutely remarkable. Remember: this was a nation which was seen as an ice hockey backwater until the events of 46 years ago, when the men’s ice hockey team, which had a couple of journeyman pros, beat a talented Soviet team and a field of good teams to win the Lake Placid gold medal.
Here’s the thing, though. And this is difficult for your Founder to say.
It would be difficult not to credit the millions of dollars of resources which have been plowed into this expensive game. It is an incredibly expensive sport: artificial ice, hockey skates, and carbon-fiber sticks are beyond the reach of most American families. And then, you have club fees, transportation to tournaments, and paying coaches for teams from the elite Tier 1 teams down to the mites who are out there chasing after pucks like zombies.
It is the classic environment I call “moneyball.” Critics of the American youth sports industry call it “pay-to-play.”
I’d hate for the people who run youth sports to see the successes in ice hockey to justify profligate and excessive spending all in the name of mining Olympic medals.