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HOT TOPIC
March, 1998
By Guest Contributor Michael J. Fresina
SHE Shoots! SHE Scores! BIGTIME.
The success of the USA Women's Hockey team in the Olympic games at Nagano is changing the face of women's athletics. As boxes of Wheaties featuring the team are stocked in grocery stores around the world, commercials are being shot, endorsements signed and role models created. Timing is indeed everything, and the timing of the USA women's gold medal performance could not have been more necessary or fruitful.
Women's hockey became a sanctioned Olympic event for the first time in Nagano. The quality of play was excellent and the result, unforgettable. By becoming the first gold medal winners, the American women quickly established themselves as our newest darlings and heroes. Cashing in on their success, the ladies are busy conducting interviews, making commercials and breaking down barriers. Cammi Granato, the team's captain, is proof that women's hockey and its ambassadors have arrived. As one of the only female players around, Cammi Granato learned the rules of hockey as they pertained to girls at a very young age. These included tucking her hair under her helmet, using a boy's name, and never crying when her brothers rocked her into the boards. Along with these rigors, she gained the understanding that not everyone wanted her to have a chance. Cammi's willingness to accept these prohibitions was fueled by her love of a game. In a world grown tired of pouty millionaire athletes operating with only the almighty dollar in sight, Granato's passion is burning her image into the hearts of fans, little girls in need of heroes, and marketing executives.
Because the concept of women's hockey is relatively new, TEAM USA promotes as much as they practice. Each woman accepts responsibility for the game's future. Cammi Granato, a featured Nike athlete, has endorsement contracts with several equipment companies and chuckles at being called a supermodel. She prefers to be a super role model. Granato has been on every U.S. national team and has come to understand the importance of their success and barnstorming salesmanship. She spent everyday in Nagano with stick in hand, often with ice nowhere in sight; helping children from around the world feel her love of the game.
Women's sports have been living quietly in the shadows for many years. Thirty years ago, only 1 in 27 girls played high school sports. Today, that number is 1 in 3. The introduction of women's hockey, the ABL, WNBA and sanctioned women's boxing is the beginning of something great. Every pioneering movement needs its most recognizable ambassadors in the forefront. Cammi Granato and her teammates are playing that role. Originally hoping to simply give other little girls who follow their brothers to rinks a reason to step on the ice and play, they have done much more. Forcing minds open and generating excitement, the USA women's hockey team will ultimately be remembered as the athletes whose efforts and sacrifices did for women's sports what Magic Johnson and Larry Bird did for the NBA.