Angela Ruggiero
Angela Ruggiero
Angela Marie Ruggierois an American ice hockey defenseman. She is a member of the International Olympic Committee and was a member of the United States women's national ice hockey team, medaling in four successive Winter Olympic Games, including one Gold medal, two Silver, and one Bronze. She competed in ten Women's World Championships winning four Gold medals and six Silver. She also authored a memoir about her hockey experiences called Breaking the Ice. She also was a contestant on the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth3 January 1980
CountryUnited States of America
In a way, by being fully committed to the Olympic movement globally, I'm better able to promote women's hockey and talk about women's hockey and put a face to women's hockey, to all the IOC members.
The more I've done work with the IOC the more I've come to realize I'm really excited about this, the work that I'm doing and the impact that I can have if I'm fully committed to it.
It's not about, 'Let me play as long as I can so I don't have to grow up.' It's about, 'Let me play as long as I enjoy it,' and when it's time to step away, I can step away gracefully even if I'm still good enough to keep playing, because I'm ready for that next phase.
I still love hockey. It's just I'm at a different stage of my life and I think I'm just ready to grow in other ways outside of just being a hockey player.
I find that I've tried to become a better hockey player every year and not just hold on. At the same time, I've also made it a point to increase or grow in some other area of my life. If I were just playing hockey, I would probably be done with the sport.
When you look back from your Olympic experience, you never want to question whether you could have done more. The one thing you can control is your off-ice preparation.
I have enough muscle already. Now I want to use it in more efficient ways.
Right now, I'm standing behind the glass, and I guess that's a metaphor for how my life will be going forward.
It feels right. But it's emotional. Saying goodbye to anything you've done that long is hard.
There were no women's players I knew of. I didn't even know women's hockey existed.
That's the awesome part. Little girls now have a chance to look up and see women playing soccer, basketball, softball and now hockey - and know they can win a gold medal, too.
It hurts right now. It stings. I'm in shock. There's a lot of emotions going through my head.
It hurts right now; it stings. I'm in shock. There are a lot of emotions going through my head. But if you're talking long term, yeah, maybe the rest of the world will see there are other teams out there that can win and Sweden and Finland are those teams right now. Maybe that'll give hope to some other European teams to put more money into their programs and make this sport really global.
It hurt, it stings, I'm in shock. There are a lot of things going through my head.