USA Women’s Ice Hockey Dominance at the Winter Olympics

Alex: 23-year-old defender Caroline Harvey has had nine points, two goals, seven assists, which makes her by far and away the best player on the team right now.

Caitlin: Best player in the tournament right now.

Welcome to Raising the Game: A Women’s Sports Podcast

Caitlin: Hi, I’m Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I’m Alex. And you’re listening to Raising the Game, a podcast covering the rise in opportunity, visibility, and accessibility of women’s sports globally. We’re a husband-wife team who are avid sports fans raising two young girls, finding exposure and investment in women’s sports.

Caitlin: It’s a gateway for them and other young girls to see their passions for play, performance, and leadership not as extracurriculars to be added to a resume or a discipline with an expiration date after high school or college, but as a real opportunity to build a career as an athlete, a coach, an analyst, an athletic trainer, a director of sports operations, or maybe even a podcaster.

Alex: Each week, we’re bringing you the top stories in women’s professional and sometimes collegiate sports. We’ll highlight primetime performers, key business decisions, economic impacts, and the growing opportunities for women’s athletics.

Caitlin: You’ll hear our perspectives on these stories as fans, but perhaps more importantly, as parents who value what these stories mean for our kids. If there’s a storyline or topic you’d like to hear us talk about, reach out via email at raisingthegamepod@gmail.com or on social media at RTG_pod.

Community Support and Upcoming Episode Structure

Alex: All right, we’re back. Thanks for being here with us. Before we get into our favorite things to kick off the episode, we’ll just do our standard commentary and call to action around supporting the community here. Again, in Minneapolis, I think like we mentioned last week, things have really kind of died down from a national news media perspective. But I do know from people that I am familiar with that there’s still a significant amount of activity going on.

Caitlin: Much has changed on the ground here. It’s sort of expanding out beyond the Twin Cities area. So I will say today, if you are watching us or if you see clips on our social media, Alex and I are both wearing some gear that we got from Soda Clothing Company. We mentioned this a little bit ago and the proceeds for that went to support St. Louis Park, one of the communities that we used to live in. So finding ways to give and support where we can, this is one way that we do it. We have a bunch of links in our show notes that we’ll continue to keep there if you feel compelled to join in.

Alex: One other thing I do want to mention off the top is today’s episode is going to be a little different than the last couple. We aren’t doing a particularly deep dive on anything. We have a lot of things to cover off on, and so our top headline segment is going to feel a little shorter. That’s mostly because the rest of the episode is going to be taking all the top headlines and talking a little more about them.

Caitlin: Best SportsCenter impression.

Alex: Yeah, exactly. So if this feels a little like you’re watching or listening to SportsCenter this week, that’s why. We have a ton to catch up on. We’re going to talk Olympics. We’re going to get into WNBA and other basketball news. There’s a lot of soccer stuff going on. As we gear up for a lot of these seasons to get started, and as the Winter Olympics continues into its second week, we’re just going to be talking about it all.

Favorite Things: Unrivaled 1v1 Tournament and Olympic Highlights

Caitlin: Do we want to do favorite things first?

Alex: Oh my goodness. Yes, of course we do. I think we might have a very similar favorite thing.

Caitlin: The 1v1 tournament from Unrivaled. 100%. So good. Insane basketball being played, especially as it got deeper into it. We’ll talk a little bit more about this in our basketball segment and give you a few fun facts behind it, but I read a quote that was like, is the NBA taking notes? Is the WNBA taking notes? The NBA just played their All-Star game this past weekend.

Alex: I said that first, because their All-Star games, frankly, I find them very boring. They keep trying to do little gimmicky things. This was so entertaining. It’s so quick. It’s really on-brand with the age of social media, like the quick scroll and swipe. Material impact was on the line with the prize money, and that made for really good TV.

Caitlin: These ladies were not messing around. It definitely felt more intense the deeper into the bracket they got. If you watched it at all, it was just icy stares. There was not a lot of trash talking. They were locked in on their game, so super fun. I do have a couple of others that I’m going to throw out there. I know we’re going to talk about it, but just the ice hockey at the Olympics. Team USA has been dominant, unbelievable. It’s really impressive to watch.

Alex: The other thing I had to put in there, we were watching some primetime Olympic coverage on NBC the other night and it was just random pairs figure skating. We’ve talked a lot about ice dance with Madison Chock and Evan Bates. Pairs is where it’s a male-female pair, and they do more of the throwing of the female skater. I was glued to the television, mesmerized during this routine. It’s so enthralling watching all of these sports, but that one in particular stood out. I’m a big closeted figure skating lover.

Caitlin: The athleticism of being thrown in the air and landing on one skate, let alone one foot. I saw a fun fact that these women are absorbing something from six to 9,000 pounds of pressure when they land. There was one pair in particular where the woman gets thrown 21 feet distance-wise. I would be scared.

Alex: I told Alex the other night, I’m lucky if I can jump off of one foot and land on one foot and hold a position. They land on one foot on a blade going backwards, absorbing a ton of pressure. It’s insane.

Top Headlines: Allyson Felix, Hello Sunshine, and Chelsea FC

Caitlin: Top headlines. Let’s do it. US Olympian and track and field star Allyson Felix was named an International Olympic Committee member, demonstrating the value of the athlete perspective.

Alex: I thought this was cool. Allyson Felix, for those who may not be familiar, is a multiple-time medalist for Team USA track and field. She really shot to societal fame when she challenged Nike on their maternity policies. They were going to dock her pay while she was out on maternity leave as a sponsored athlete. She actually ended up transforming Nike’s product line as a result of that conversation, getting them to have a maternity apparel line for pregnant women. She’s done a ton of work to speak to equity and sport across the genders. Really cool to see her getting a perspective here. Whether or not the IOC takes that into consideration, we’ll see.

Caitlin: Alex and I both have a lot of issues with the IOC. That might be a deep dive at some point. But cool to see that she’s willing to step in and try to make some change. Moving on, Peacock and NBC streaming services are premiering two new episodes of its Hello Sunshine documentary series. One is focused on X Games athletes and another focused on the trajectory of the PWHL.

Alex: Hello Sunshine is the production company. There was an episode about a month or so ago on Napheesa Collier. I thought this was cool talking about X Games athletes, but then obviously we’ve been talking a lot about the PWHL, so it’s cool to see that they’re spotlighting that. I would recommend everybody go check that out.

Caitlin: Giannis Antetokounmpo purchased a stake in Chelsea FC, joining Alexis Ohanian who bought a 10% stake last year. Let’s be clear, women’s Chelsea FC. Giannis just announced this week that he’s buying a stake in the team. We see this theme of athletes and folks who are around sport investing in women’s sports right now, and this is just another example.

NCAA Clashes and Controversies in Women’s Basketball

Alex: South Carolina dispatches LSU. I heard there were all the fireworks you’d expect between a showdown of a Dawn Staley and a Kim Mulkey. The game was played on Valentine’s Day, and Kim Mulkey had this electric pink suit with black hearts embroidered on it. You can go find the clip, y’all. Kim Mulkey, as is her custom, went off on a referee at one point for not letting her call a timeout. That is worth its weight in entertainment gold.

Caitlin: Six former Pitt Panthers basketball players sue head coach Tory Verdi, alleging he pressured players into the transfer portal, made harassing remarks, and threatened players’ careers on and off the court. This is unfortunate. We have a couple of headlines this week that aren’t the best news. We don’t want to shy away from some of the challenges that female athletes face. This one wasn’t along the lines of physical or sexual abuse, but it’s still not great to see people in positions of power take advantage of those positions. What really struck me was he was allegedly threatening these players’ careers off the court. What were they going to go do after the fact?

Alex: I did see a quote from the university because they’re also suing Pitt, and the university is protecting him, so it’ll come out in court. We believe women.

Rickea Jackson Takes Leave Amid Harassment Charges

Caitlin: WNBA star Rickea Jackson takes leave from Unrivaled season, admits harassment and felony charges from ex-boyfriend and NFL player James Pearce Jr., who agrees to testify.

Alex: Another bummer of a headline. Rickea was one we were really enjoying watching in the Unrivaled season. She was on the Breeze BC with Paige Bueckers, Cameron Brink, and Dominique Malonga. Really scary, frankly, if you read about what happened. He was stalking her down in Miami where she was playing. He followed her in his car, hit her car, and when she tried to go straight to the police station, he blocked her from going there before leaving.

Caitlin: It’s super brave of her to step in and be cooperative. These are really difficult situations, and I’m glad she’s able to take the time away for herself, but it’s a bummer to not see her play. We saw some really bad takes online where somebody was like, “They’re going to ruin his career.” How do you read that story and say that it’s her fault that he stalked her? He’s ruined his own career.

US Women’s Ice Hockey Steamrolls Olympic Competition

Alex: Let’s move on to something a little bit more fun here. We’re doing our Olympics roundup. Kind of what we’ve been latching onto a lot here is ice hockey. The United States women have been completely dominant. They’re outscoring their opponents 26 to 1. They lost—excuse me, they only gave up one goal in their game against Czechia. They won five to one. Finland, they won five to zero. Switzerland, five to zero. Canada, they beat five to zero.

Caitlin: We kind of joked their biggest thing is they can’t get past five goals, and then they had a 6-0 quarterfinal victory against Italy.

Alex: The biggest thing here is that 23-year-old defender Caroline Harvey has had nine points, two goals, seven assists, which is by far and away the best player in the tournament right now. We were watching the game against Sweden in the semifinals, and they said through two periods she didn’t have a point yet, and they were still up five to nothing. So not only is it her, the whole bench is stacked. The depth is crazy.

Caitlin: In hockey, you get a point for a goal and a point for an assist, and each goal can have up to two assists. What that tells me is they’re moving the puck because that’s almost two assists per goal. No unassisted goals. Everybody distributing that wealth around. Some NBC commentators who are former Olympians are talking about how they’ve never seen play like this before.

Alex: The one question we talked about earlier today is that we’ve seen some games where the other team only has three or four shots on goal. How prepared is the goaltending to be able to take on potentially Canada? Are they going to be able to deal with more shots than they’ve seen all tournament?

Caitlin: I played goalkeeper in soccer, very different visuals, but it is true that the longer you spend off action, the challenge becomes locking back into the game and staying sharp. Now they’ve been rotating. They’ve had Aerin Frankel, who is arguably the best goaltender in the world right now, and they’ve had Gwyneth Philips play in a couple of games too, getting some rotation in there.

The Ultimate Olympic Rivalry: USA vs. Canada

Alex: I think the biggest stumbling block for them is the fact that they beat Canada 5-0. I hope they don’t sleep on them thinking they already beat them. Canada is going to come for it. This is the seventh gold medal game between these two countries. Canada has won four, the US has won three. Canada famously won in the 2022 Beijing Olympics in tough fashion, and Team USA is definitely out for revenge.

Caitlin: Sweden came out and took it to them today. It was 1-0 at the end of the first period. Sweden was skating hard, being physical, bodying these women up. That’s probably what you’re going to need to do if you’re Canada.

Alex: You’ve got to be careful though, because you don’t want to give up penalties. As soon as the US scored that second goal, they scored three goals in like three minutes. They know how to pour it on when things start to open up.

Caitlin: Let’s talk about Canada. Their record entering the semifinals is five and one. Their goal differential is 19 and seven. Five of those seven goals allowed were against the US. So their defense is not horrible. And Marie-Philip Poulin was out for two games, including that USA game. She is back and ready to play against the US in this game.

Alex: You’ve got her and Hilary Knight on the side of Team USA, both playing in a record five Olympics for their respective countries. A lot of respect and a lot of rivalry between those two captains. It is truly going to come down to the battle of Captain Clutch versus Captain America. Poulin is known for scoring game-winning goals. As long as they can keep it close, I will be watching her like a hawk.

Caitlin: Is she going to make the five-goal difference, or is the US team just inevitable at this point? If I had to put a prediction out there, I think Team USA. Their depth is too good, and one player alone is not going to flip the switch. I think it’s going to be a 4-2, 5-2 score for the USA.

Winter Olympics Women’s Medal Count

Alex: We’re going to do a little bit of a medal count here. These are strictly medal counts for the women or mixed-gender teams for each country. We have Sweden in the lead with four golds, three silvers, two bronze. Italy in second with four gold, two silver, three bronze. France with three gold, three silver, one bronze.

Caitlin: The USA now has 14 total. Four gold for women, five silver, and five bronze. If we look at it holistically, there are six total golds for the USA, and four of those are women. Eight total silver, five are women. Five total bronze, and they’re all women. 80% of the medals won so far are on the women’s side or mixed.

US Women’s Medal Winners and Standout Performances

Alex: We have a gold in the team event in figure skating. A gold in the women’s downhill by Breezy Johnson. Breezy Johnson not only won the gold medal, but her boyfriend proposed to her. When she posted online, Taylor Swift commented on it with lyrics from one of her songs. You got a shout-out from the pop superstar of the world.

Caitlin: We have Elizabeth Lemley who won a gold in the women’s moguls and a bronze in the dual moguls. We also saw the monobob finals happen, and our spotlighted Black woman, most decorated Black Winter Olympian of all time, Elana Meyers Taylor, took home her elusive gold medal. She thanked her nannies, because childcare is necessary and should be something that we all get to have to support our dreams.

Alex: Jaelin Kauf won silver in both single and dual moguls. We’ve got silver for Madison Chock and Evan Bates in Mixed Ice Dance, silver for the Coreys in mixed doubles curling, and silver for Chloe Kim in snowboarding halfpipe.

Caitlin: Moving on to bronze medals, Ashley Farquharson got bronze in singles luge. Jessie Diggins got the bronze in the 10-kilometer freestyle. We had bronze for Jacqueline Wiles and Minnesotan Paula Moltzan on the women’s team combined skiing. Kaillie Humphries in monobob also took a bronze medal.

Alex: Some other impressive performances: Femke Kok from the Netherlands in speed skating 500 meters set an Olympic record. She put Erin Jackson into fifth place. Federica Brignone from Italy competing on home soil brought home two gold medals in alpine skiing. Her giant slalom victory was particularly emotional, becoming the first Italian woman to win that event since 1998.

Caitlin: In a bizarre twist, Sweden’s Sara Hector and Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund skied identical times down to the hundredth of a second, not just once, but twice. They shared a silver medal and no bronze was awarded.

Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding, and Overcoming Adversity

Alex: Erin Jackson failed to defend her 2022 gold medal in the 500 meters. She had a great start, but a small stumble on the back half put her into fifth. A small stumble in a 37-second race is everything. The difference between first and fifth is less than a second.

Caitlin: Moving on to Mikaela Shiffrin. Almost every article online is talking about how this is about resilience versus podiums. She had that terrible crash in November of 2024, punctured her abdomen, and had surgery. This was more about her getting back into intense international competition. These people are hurtling themselves down a mountain at 80 miles an hour. You can imagine the mentality you have to have to do that when you feel good, let alone overcoming a significant injury.

Alex: Chloe Kim’s bid for a historic three-peat was thwarted by South Korean teenager Choi Ga-on. Kim put down a clean technical run scoring 88, but Choi responded with a massive 90.25 to take the top spot.

Caitlin: Chloe is a mentor to Ga-on. It’s almost this passing of the torch moment. Chloe suffered a really significant shoulder injury not that long ago. The first thing she did after falling on her final run was go over to Ga-on and give her a hug immediately. Such a beautiful example of class and character.

Alex: Jessie Diggins finished eighth in the skiathlon after a crash, was knocked out of a sprint while nursing bruised ribs, but still grabbed bronze in the 10-kilometer freestyle. She left everything out on that course. Hats off to you, Jessie.

Upcoming Olympic Events to Watch

Caitlin: Still to come, we have the ice hockey final on Thursday at noon. Mikaela Shiffrin in Slalom on Wednesday. Figure skating with Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, and Isabeau Levito. We have women’s curling and two-woman bobsled later this week. That’s it for Olympics for this episode, but we’ll be talking about it again next week.

WNBA CBA Negotiations Update

Alex: Now I’m going to shift gears into some women’s professional basketball updates. We wanted to hit y’all with a CBA update. There were minimal changes with the league’s proposal, mostly agreements on housing and developmental roster spots, but not a lot of movement on revenue sharing.

Caitlin: NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked about the CBA situation. The NBA is a 42% owner of the WNBA, and Cathy Engelbert reports directly to him. Silver stressed the need for urgency on both sides, saying we need to move towards a next-level sense of urgency and not lose momentum in terms of the progress in women’s basketball.

Alex: I think that was directed a little bit at the owners, like, get your product figured out here. But I also can’t imagine he’s looking at the union’s numbers and agreeing fully. On Valentine’s Day, the WNBPA posted a message to the league: “Roses are red, violets are blue. We’d love a proposal that values players too.”

Caitlin: In addition, Breanna Stewart, part of the executive committee, just signed to go back overseas to the Turkish club Fenerbahçe Opet for their playoff push in April, which butts right up to the start of the WNBA preseason. So we don’t have an agreement yet.

WNBA Expansion Draft and Free Agency Complexities

Alex: The season is supposed to tip off May 8th. They have the expansion drafts for two teams, and over 100 players are in free agency, literally not signed to contracts because of the moratorium. No one wants to sign when the CBA may be renegotiated.

Caitlin: How are you protecting players for an expansion draft when they’re not assigned to your team? You have two teams going through this draft, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo. General managers and coaching staffs are trying to construct teams without knowing who will be available. The chemistry of the players, the training staff, it’s going to take until July for us to really see these teams gel.

Angel Reese Returns to Unrivaled and Playoff Scenarios

Alex: Let’s transition to Unrivaled. Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky is returning to Unrivaled. She’s going to return to Rose BC, the team she was part of when they won the inaugural championship. She’ll be hitting the court to help the Rose try and get into the playoffs.

Caitlin: The 1v1 tournament was so fun to watch. Chelsea Gray won a $200K bag in 32 minutes of play. Her entire salary from the WNBA last year was $196K. The runner-up was Alicia Gray of the Atlanta Dream, taking home $50K. Semifinalists Kelsey Plum and Aliyah Boston each got $25K.

Alex: Looking at the Unrivaled playoff picture, the top four teams make the playoffs. Laces BC and Phantom BC are locked in. The Mist BC and Breeze BC are right behind them. Rose BC is currently on the outside looking in. Angel Reese almost needs to come in and be perfect to help the Rose win.

Caitlin: The semifinals of the tournament are scheduled for Monday, March 2nd at Barclays Center in NYC. I think future iterations of Unrivaled will see a traveling situation where they take it to different markets.

Team USA FIBA World Cup Roster Announcement

Alex: Team USA just named a roster for an upcoming FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament running mid-March. They are playing against Senegal, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, and Puerto Rico. They actually already qualified for the 2026 World Cup, but use these games as a tune-up.

Caitlin: The roster includes Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers making their senior side debuts. You also have debuts for Angel Reese, Sonia Citron, and Kiki Iriafen. They will be joined by Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard, and Aliyah Boston. That is a stacked lineup.

Alex: You have so many of these big names that have brought attention to the sport. I think these games are going to be viewed a lot more by spectators. They’re going to be led by Duke coach Kara Lawson, along with Natalie Nakase, Nate Tibbetts, and Stephanie White.

Blockbuster NWSL Trades: Croix Bethune and Claire Hutton

Caitlin: Let’s wrap things up with a women’s soccer roundup. There were some huge trades in the NWSL. Croix Bethune, US women’s national team midfielder and NWSL rookie of the year, was traded from the Washington Spirit to the Kansas City Current for an estimated transfer amount of about $1 million.

Alex: Claire Hutton is headed to Bay FC for $1.1 million from Kansas City Current. These are the second and third highest intra-league transfers behind Jaedyn Shaw. The current CBA requires player consent for all transactions, and it was reported that Bethune actually wanted to make a change.

Caitlin: Another big move is Catarina Macario. Her contract at Chelsea FC expires at the end of this WSL season and she doesn’t want to resign. Reportedly, she’s in advanced talks to come back stateside with the San Diego Wave. That would be a huge win for the NWSL.

USWNT SheBelieves Cup Roster Predictions

Alex: The SheBelieves Cup starts on March 1st. The US will play Argentina, Canada, and Colombia. They expanded the roster to 26 players, though coaches have to declare the 23 that will dress for the game. All matches ending in a tie will move directly to penalty kicks to reduce injury risk.

Caitlin: A friend challenged me to a roster prediction. Emma Hayes has said who she names will give a glimpse into the World Cup qualifying squad. For goalkeepers, I’ve got Casey Murphy, Phallon Tullis-Joyce, and Mandy McGlynn. Defenders: Emily Sonnett, Naomi Girma, Emily Fox, Gisele Thompson, Emily Sams, Avery Patterson, and Tierna Davidson depending on her injury status.

Alex: For midfielders, I have Olivia Moultrie, Lo LaBonta, Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Heaps, Sam Coffey, Claire Hutton, Lily Johannes, and Croix Bethune. For forwards, Catarina Macario, Sophia Wilson, Trinity Rodman, Ally Sentnor, Yazmeen Ryan, Alyssa Thompson, and Emma Sears.

What to Watch and Weekly Winners & Losers

Caitlin: What to watch for this week. Unrivaled has two games on Tuesday evening. We also have Athletes Unlimited Basketball in their third week. NCAA Basketball features Michigan versus Iowa, and number 17 Ole Miss versus number three.

Alex: We also have newly ranked number 23 Minnesota hosting number 18 Michigan State. In NCAA hockey, the big in-state rivalry: University of Minnesota Duluth versus the University of Minnesota.

Caitlin: Moving on to winners and losers. My loser is that the Olympics is really cramping the PWHL momentum. The hockey is phenomenal, but I want to get back to seeing what happens in the PWHL. Also, the broadcasters during the women’s hockey game spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the men’s legacy.

Alex: My winner is Rose BC for picking up Angel Reese. It’s huge for Unrivaled. My other winner is the WNBA CBA situation because I feel like we’re starting to inch towards something finally happening. That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to look for us at RTG_pod on socials and email us at raisingthegamepod@gmail.com. Thanks y’all. Bye.