U.S. Olympic Women’s Hockey Team 2026

Our first Olympic Winter Games, the first two clients that we had in the history of our business were in women’s hockey. Both women went to the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and both were NCAA National Champions with the Gophers. Those two women were 2002 Olympian Natalie Darwitz and the other was 2006 Olympic hopeful Kelly Stephens (Tysland). They were both selected to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games team and won an Olympic Bronze medal in TORINO, ITALY which is 78 miles away from Milano.

Today, heading into our 20th anniversary we have two Olympic hopefuls again with Kelly Pannek who competed at the 2022 & 2018 Winter Olympic Games in vastly different conditions, one in the midst of the end of a global pandemic and the other a year removed from the U.S. Women’s National Team having a gender equitable treatment strike on the cusp of a home IIHF Women’s World Championship. Now, four years later, Kelly also has other vastly different conditions but this one has been a massive positive for her sport and that is the PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S HOCKEY LEAGUE that is playing its 3rd season to date. Kelly was the first signed player in PWHL history on any team and that squad today, the PWHL’s Minnesota Frost is the back-to-back champions. She serves as the Frost Alternate Captain, but her role with the Frost is not the same role she is asked to perform with the U.S. WNT. When you play for Team USA, you play the role that the coaching staff needs and you do it to the best of your ability. You play with the best players in America and you maximize your role to the benefit of the team.

Like in 2006 with Darwitz & Stephens, Kelly is a National Champion with the Gophers, but she (& fellow Gopher alum & Frost teammate - Lee Stecklein), Kelly holds every CHAMPIONSHIP that a woman may win in women’s hockey. She has an OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL, 4-time IIHF WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, 2-time PWHL WALTER CUP and NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP. But with all of this being said, none of that guarantees you a spot to make the next Olympic Team, World Championship Team or that you make the U.S. Women’s National Team in the future. Each day you are out on the ice you must be the best at your role because someone is looking to displace you and be able to earn the spot that you have.

The other Olympic hopeful we have is Lacey Eden who is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin where she has won 3 NCAA National Championships under the legendary university coach and 1980 Miracle on Ice Olympian, Mark Johnson. Mark was the 2010 U.S. Olympic Silver medal coach as well. In Lacey’s case, she had the opportunity before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games at the age of 19 to take part in the Olympic residency program and while she did not ultimately make that team, she has played for the U.S. Women’s National Team and competed at each IIHF Women’s World Championship since then and the Rivalry Series.

This year as the advent of the PWHL has fundamentally changed the way that the pre-Olympic program would work, she has been juggling her course load at the University of Wisconsin with leaving school to play in three of the four games of the Rivalry Series. This is something that she and a few of her fellow Badgers teammates have had to do while also continuing their course load and then coming back to play NCAA games.

In the Spring of 2026 after the NCAA ice hockey season, Lacey will declare for the PWHL DRAFT and continue on her journey to become a professional athlete.

Both women have shown that they can play at the level of the U.S. Olympic Team, but as 30 women have been trying out to get here, only 23 will make it and the U.S. just as all women’s Olympic Teams will carry 3 goaltenders. 7 women will not hear their names called. Things could change should injury happen between the time of the announcement on January 2 on the TODAY SHOW and when the team departs on January 30, 2026.

However this goes or does not go, I am really proud of the two of you for the efforts you have put in during the entire quad on the U.S. WNT, in the PWHL and in the NCAA.