US Women’s National Hockey Team End Boycott, Will Play at World Championships

“In the end, both sides came together”, Meghan Duggan, captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team, said in the statement from USA Hockey.

Like the Olympics, the world championships perennially include a climactic game with the powerful team from Canada for the gold medal. It isn’t all about money.

The U.S. women’s national soccer team is also in the middle of a long battle with U.S. Soccer over equal treatment and pay.

Players were seeking a four-year deal that included payment outside the six-month Olympic period.

Players’ unions from across the four main North American professional sports leagues have also offered their support and solidarity for the women’s cause.

USA Today reports that USA Hockey has been forced to “inquire about players on NCAA Division III women’s hockey teams, adult league teams and Under-16 teams”.

“We look forward to the future with great anticipation”, said Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey. “I think it’s all around an incredible deal and an incredible day and moment”.

A landmark deal doesn’t erase what happened.

The women have received support from all corners of the country – including from Miracle on Ice hero Mike Eruzione and members of the U.S. Senate – especially after it was learned that USA Hockey was trying to recruit scab players.

“Our sport is the big victor today”, said Meghan Duggan, the team’s captain.

One of the US women’s primary objectives was to achieve enough financial support, particularly in non-Olympic years, to help players stay in the sport beyond college.

Instead, their representatives and USA Hockey continued discussions that would end their holdout over better wages and other benefits.

“We all knew what the date was on the calendar for the women’s worlds”, Ogrean said. “I hope we get a lot of credit for resolving this”. “Going forward, we won’t have to get into a situation like this ever again”.

The United States has competed in every world championship tournament since the first in 1990 and has bested Canada in the gold-medal game at both world championships since then Sochi Olympics.

With a new contract in place, the question now is whether the public nature of the squabble will prompt USA Hockey to be more aggressive in promoting girls and women’s hockey. The women’s players have also pointed out that when they fly to global competitions, they fly in coach while the men get to fly business class.

In a bid to bring gender equality to the body, the women’s side will be paid the same level of travel arrangements and insurance coverage as the men. “We’re doing this more for them than for us”.

Having officially signed a new contract, the national team will have little preparation time before the Women’s World Championship begins. The group’s goal is to advance girl’s and women’s hockey programing, marketing, promotion and fundraising to augment existing grassroots programs. The creation of this group should help address this issue, as well as give the women a formal voice at the table.

“We are excited and Team USA is excited that the original team selected to play in for Team USA will be on the ice in Michigan”, Duggan said.

“I told them I wanted to be just like them, they told me, “be better”. This year’s competition has an extra layer of significance, too, as players fight for spots on the Olympic team to compete in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.