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've never played in a consolation game in my life. This is really going to test the character of our team. As hard as it is right now to think about it, by game time I think we'll be ready. People can see past the color of a medal and see what we did to earn it.
I've never played in a consolation game in my life.
I've never played a consolation game in my life. We expected to be playing for a gold medal.
We don't think about it (the big game with Canada). We try not to if it suddenly flips into our head.
You don't expect to go to a shootout. We didn't even know the protocol. We wanted to win the game flat-out.
She's always smiling and ready to do anything asked of her. She's only going to get better from here. We let her down in her first game against Canada, but she had the right attitude to bounce right back. To have someone like her who has been on the bubble for so long, it brings a smile to your face.
We were excited to win the game and excited to win a medal, but I think maybe in the back of our heads we wished we were playing (against Canada). But we're still proud of ourselves.
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.
It's hard to build the game when it's being played like this. I'm here to promote our game on the biggest stage it's got, and it's not the best hockey in the world when the teams are so different.
I wish I could play the whole game and come back tomorrow.
I think all the teams have raised the bar. It's a much better game today. If I was the same player who tried out in '98 today, I wouldn't make the team.
I love the physical part of the game, and I don't back down from it. I've been in fights in beer-league games back home. But the rules are there for a reason, especially when you're playing a team that's not as big and strong as you are.
We lost in the semifinals, but we still wanted to bring home a medal to the United States.
The resilience of this team, the character we showed in coming back and beating Finland yesterday, we're all proud of ourselves in the fact that we're bringing the U.S. home a medal, It was great for us to start off strong, and I think we scored like two minutes, 30 seconds into the game, a good testament to the team that we were really refocusing and really went hard right from the beginning.