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
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's hard when all the pressure is in their end, and then they finally break out of it. That's when bad things can happen. We didn't play our best game, and we paid the biggest price for it.
You can't look at it as a consolation prize. At the beginning of the tournament, we said we wanted to bring home one color, and we're bringing home another, but we're still proud.
You can't look at it as a consolation prize.
There was no need for that. They're trying to pad their stats. Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons personal, short-term.
It's a really tough day for everyone: We're really excited, but we're also distraught that someone we're so close to won't be with us. Shelley's been a part of this program since 1992, and with that she has brought so much experience and leadership to the team. We're definitely going to miss her and everything she did for the team, both on and off the ice.
It's taken away from hockey. That wasn't hockey today, in my opinion. That was power play and penalty kill. And it brought me back to last Olympics, when it was no rhythm. It was power play and penalty kill. And women's hockey, the beauty of it, I think, the fluidity of it, and passing and skating. When you have power play and penalty kill, that's all systems ... so we haven't had that much opportunity to work that.
It was really important for her to play at this tournament, get the nerves out. That's the biggest thing for the goalie. Had they scored earlier in the game when they had the chances, it might have been a different ballgame.
We're excited to win the medal. But I think maybe in the back of our heads, we wish we were playing in the next game.
We know what kind of class we have.