Topics: Donald Trump, United States, Olympics
The USA women's hockey team aimed a not-so-subtle dig at Donald Trump as Hilary Knight and teammate Megan Keller appeared on Saturday Night Live – and the moment has since gone viral.
For the first time in Olympic history, the United States completed a clean sweep of hockey gold medals in the men's and women's events at the Milan-Cortina Games.
Team USA won the men's Olympic ice hockey gold medal for the first time in 46 years after recording a 2-1 win over noisy neighbours Canada, and the women recorded the same score in overtime, with Keller scoring the winning goal.
Shortly after the men’s team’s triumph, a delighted Donald Trump spoke to the team over the phone.
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Here, the US President invited the team to attend his State of the Union address, which took place on February 24, but while doing so, he made a controversial comment about the women’s team.
“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” Trump said. “You do know that. I do believe I probably would be impeached [if the women’s team wasn’t invited].”
Eventually, the women’s team decided against attending the State of the Union address due to "the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments” of the athletes.
“We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning US Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” a spokesperson said.
US women’s ice hockey captain and five-time Olympic medallist Hilary Knight has since offered her take on Trump’s comment, describing it as “distasteful”.
“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke and, unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success — the success of women at the Olympics competing for Team USA and achieving amazing gold medal feats," she said on SportsCentre.
Knight has certainly not held back when speaking on the situation, and on Saturday night, she appeared on SNL alongside teammate Megan Keller and USA men's team members Jack and Quinn Hughes.
Shortly after entering the segment, Knight began by saying: “It was going to be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys, too" – a comment that brought a loud response from those in attendance.
You can watch the segment in full below:
Earlier this week, former USWNT striker Megan Rapinoe was critical of the US men's hockey team after they accepted Donald Trump's invitation to the White House.
Speaking on her podcast with Sue Bird, Rapinoe, who won gold at the 2012 Olympics, called them out for visiting Trump and claimed it tarnished their moment of glory.
"You have the medal. You have the medal swinging around your neck that you won, that you fought for, that you dreamt about your whole life, and then you just gave this whole moment over to this person who you know is just only gonna use it for him. Gonna totally co-opt it," she began.
"Why don't you respect you more than to have that moment be taken by someone who, for no reason at all, just takes a huge swing and a jab at women who did the exact same thing that you did?"
Rapinoe also had her say on Trump's "impeached" comment and explained that she didn't understand the men's team's reaction to his jab.
The 40-year-old added: "I think, for me, I left this whole interaction and this whole kerfuffle, if you will, like, yes, why are you laughing at your friends?
"But also like, why don't you respect you enough to not be used in this moment for this unique achievement that is truly one of the greatest achievements in life? And now this is what people think about your moment. And that sucks."
