US women’s hockey players respond to Trump’s joke: ‘Our achievements shouldn’t be overshadowed’

Players on the United States’ Olympic Women’s hockey team responded Wednesday to a comment President Donald Trump made earlier this week, where he joked he might be impeached if he did not invite the women’s team to the State of the Union and White House.The president made the comment during a phone call with the men’s team on Sunday after they won their gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Both the men’s and women’s teams defeated Canada in 2-1 in overtime in the gold medal finals at the Olympics.
“I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” he chuckled to the men’s team. “I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?”
The women’s team declined the invitation to Tuesday’s State of the Union address because of scheduling conflicts, but the men’s team made an appearance at the event and at the White House. 
“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and unfortunately that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Women’s team captain Hilary Knight told ESPN’s SportsCenter. 
“I think this is just a really good learning point to really focus on, you know, how we talk about women,” Knight continued. “Not only in sport, but in industry. Women aren’t less than and our achievements shouldn’t be overshadowed by anything else other than how great they are.”
Team USA’s Kelly Pannek and Hayley Scamurra also did not appear surprised by the president’s comment and indicated they wanted to focus on the achievement of becoming gold medalists.
“With the phone call specifically, it’s not surprising, to be frank,” Pannek said. “So I don’t know why we expect differently, but I think for us, it’s also just about getting back to the focus on our team and what our team accomplished.”
President Trump said during his speech in front of Congress on Tuesday that the women’s team will be visiting the White House soon, but USA Hockey said it would still depend on the team’s schedules after the regular season wraps up.
“Players are back competing with their professional and collegiate teams and are in the midst of their season,” a USA Hockey spokesperson told Front Office Sports. “They’re honored and grateful to be invited and any opportunity to visit the White House as a team will be based on their schedules once their seasons conclude.”  

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