American ice hockey goalie Aerin Frankel became the first Jewish gold medal winner at the 2026 Winter Olympics as the US women’s team triumphed over Canada in a tight affair.
Trailing 1-0 from a Canadian goal in the second period, the US equalised with two minutes of regular time to play and scored a sudden-death winner four minutes into overtime to win 2-1.
Frankel made an extraordinary 30 saves to keep a threatening Canadian side at bay.
With the gold medal around her neck, the 26-year-old said that “it’ll definitely be a memory that I’ll remember forever with this group, we have such an incredible team. I’m just glad that we were able to get the result that we worked for”.
About her experience in Italy over the past fortnight, she said that “it’s hard to even put into words. Being with this team, at the [Olympic] Village, every single day, it’s so easy to go to the rink and put the work in because everyone beside you is doing the same thing and we’re just having so much fun”.
“I can’t say enough good things about this group”, she said.
The US women’s team won all seven of their games in Italy, scoring 33 goals and conceding just twice.
Frankel played in five of those games and broke several records along the way.
In the final group stage game, her shutout of Canada was the first time ever in the Olympics that Canada had failed to score in a women’s ice hockey match. A “shutout” is when a goaltender successfully stops the other team from scoring during the entire game.
And the 5-0 win over Sweden in the semi-final saw Frankel become the first goalie with three shutouts in a single Olympic tournament, for any country.
Frankel was not only a fan favourite for her talents on the rink, but also for her personality off it.
She has gone somewhat viral for an Instagram account which she runs which is dedicated to rating Caesar salads. In an interview before the final, she described herself as an "aspiring dog mum” who “like[s] Caesar salad”.
Frankel was born in New York, first donning a pair of ice skates at the age of seven. She went to boarding school in Minnesota, before going to Northeastern University in Massachusetts.
She currently plays for Boston Fleet where she is known as the “green monster” by the team’s fans. She is rated among the best in the world in her position and saved 94.6 per cent of the shots that she faced in this year’s domestic season.
This tournament was Frankel’s first Olympics. In her debut, she made 13 saves in a 5-1 win over Czechia.
That was followed by shutouts of Finland and eventual finalists Canada in the group stage. Both matches were won 5-0, sandwiching another 5-0 win over Switzerland for which she was rested.
She didn’t play in the 6-0 win over Italy in the quarter final, before making 23 saves in the 5-0 win over Sweden in the semi-final.
Of the 30 saves she made in the final, several were with her head. She said that she “might have a headache tomorrow” after the game.
She ended the tournament having played 304 minutes, faced 99 shots, saved 97 of them, and let just two past her.
She was keen share the plaudits with her team. After the semi-final, she said that “the team is playing so well defensively [that] they are making my job easy by making the plays in front of me so predictable so I can do my job”.
Frankel reserved special praise for Hilary Knight, who at the age of 36 scored the equaliser in the final, and added this gold medal to her existing collection of one gold and three silvers from the previous four Olympics.
“She’ll go down in history, she’s a legend”, Frankel said after the final. “Not only is she an incredible player but she’s also an incredible person and I’ve learned so much from her over the years”.
Frankel wasn’t the only Jewish medallist in the women’s ice hockey. Kayle Osborne, 23, took a silver home as part of the Canada squad which was narrowly defeated.
Also a goaltender, she effectively served as the squad’s third choice and did not play any minutes during the Games.
Frankel and Osborne are the fourth and fifth Jewish medallists of the Games. They follow curler Korey Dropkin, snowboarder Scotty James, and speed skater Emery Lehman, who all won silver during the past two weeks.
They are five of a small cohort of Jewish or Israeli athletes competing at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games, which will come to an end on Sunday.
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