Like many of my fellow Wellesley students, I have spent a sizable portion of the last few weeks watching and reading about the Olympics. I excitedly watched as both the men’s and women’s U.S. Hockey teams won gold in overtime, capping off an impressive Olympic run. Hillary Knight, the women’s captain, broke the U.S. Olympic points record, and the men’s win led the USA to their first Olympic hockey gold since the “Miracle on Ice” 46 years ago.
However, my excitement was quickly diminished after watching a video of the men’s hockey team laughing as the president joked about being forced to invite the women’s hockey team to the State of the Union or he’d “be impeached.”
Unsurprisingly, both the president’s comments and the men’s team’s response drew significant backlash online. This incident, combined with the poor decorum of Kash Patel, the Director of the FBI, who crashed the men’s locker room celebration, seemed to quickly overshadow much of the excitement about the men’s win. The media storm only continued as the men’s team attended the president’s State of the Union address while the women’s team backed out for allegedly unrelated scheduling reasons.
Now, about a week out from the historic win, I have seen an increasing number of people arguing that the public has once again taken things too far. Some argue that the players were simply caught up in the excitement of the moment, that we shouldn’t take this too seriously, and that people shouldn’t make everything “so political.” While I was beginning to gather my thoughts into an article, I received a surprising email in my inbox from Wellesley’s Athletic Director, Bethany Ellis, with the subject line: “hockey.” This short email led to a meaningful exchange with our athletic director that both reformed and reinforced the key point of my own frustration: “It’s the follow-up that matters.”
What many of the articles in the wake of the media controversy defending these men’s actions seemed to miss was that many people already understood why they laughed in the way that they did. Most people can understand the feeling of being caught up in the moment and laughing at an uncomfortable joke made by a person in power. And in the aftermath of the video being released, some men were quick to explain their appreciation for the women’s team. However, Ellis commented that the real issue wasn’t that these men didn’t support the women’s team, but that “[a]s soon as the women weren’t in the room, they laughed.” We weren’t only disappointed that the men responded the way that they did, but we were also disappointed that, given the opportunity to reflect, many of the men’s team didn’t actually apologize for actions taken behind closed doors. Ellis also noted, “I don’t read [their laughter] as being indicative of the men’s hockey team’s feeling for the women’s team — I read that laughter as indicative of cultural group norms.”
While I am perhaps less apt to believe that the laughter from the men’s hockey team is not indicative of the team’s thoughts about women’s hockey, I agree with Ellis’ points that their response in the moment tells us less than their lack of accountability afterwards. It is also worth noting that these aren’t just any athletes — these are U.S. hockey icons that many young men will look up to. If they model that any kind of “locker room talk” is okay, that sets a poor precedent in a sport already known for exclusion and bigotry.
In our conversation, Ellis made the excellent point that it is unfortunate how quickly everyone moved on from the president’s comment itself, but that it was telling of how impossible it would be to keep up with every sexist comment made by this president. I agree, but go even further. Many athletes competing at the Olympic Games were conflicted about representing the U.S. in the context of the current ICE raids in Minneapolis and elsewhere, growing signs of fascism in the U.S. and the generally embarrassing actions of our president. This only further emphasizes my initial frustration — the voices of athletes matter, and in that moment, those men let us down. And when we have lost faith in our president to represent the values of our country, we must expect more from the athletes that represent us.
Contact the editors responsible for this article: Caitlin Donovan, Avery Finley
