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Brianna Decker has known since Thursday night, when she fell on the ice with a broken leg and started screaming, she wouldn’t be playing against Canada or anyone else in Beijing.
His frustration is far from resolved.
“I think I’m still working out,” Decker, the star center for the US women’s hockey team, said in an interview in Beijing Tuesday morning. Later in the day, he arrived on crutches for an interview at the arena where the team will face Canada. He chose to stay in the American squad rather than fly home in a run that was expected to result in a gold medal match.
“I have never left my family in any situation here, and they have not abandoned me,” he said of his decision to stay in the indoor Olympic balloon in the Chinese capital. “I want to stay here, I want to be a part of it, I want to cheer them up and I want to be there for the most important game of their lives,” I said.
Decker said on Tuesday that his collision with Finnish Ronja Savolainen last week left him with a broken leg and a torn ligament in his ankle. Decker complained on Tuesday that it was a “dirty game”, although officials did not penalize Finland for the near-goal part in the first period of the United States’ opening game at these Games.
“What I do know is that it’s hockey and there are injuries, but I think in some ways that can be avoided,” he said. But at the end of the day it’s a team sport and I’m lucky our team can go ahead and compete and try to win us a gold medal at the end of the tournament.”
He’s spent the days since his injury managing pain, preparing for surgery – he expects it to take about eight weeks to recover after the surgery is performed in the United States – and stops his team. In essence, he has become a kind of scout and an extra coach.
“I see myself as another eye that can watch the girls in the sky and give them feedback, and they want feedback from me,” she said. “It just shows that they value it, but I also value everything and every quality in them.”
The sudden exit of the United States from the Olympic tournament, which it wanted to repeat as champions, forced the Americans to balance their approach to the matches. One of the toughest and strongest centers in the sport, Decker played college hockey at the University of Wisconsin and made the Olympic teams that won silver in Sochi and gold in Pyeongchang.
He said he wasn’t sure how his injury would affect his interest in playing for the United States at the 2026 Games. For now, he’s trying to deal with the pain of being kicked out of the Olympics so early.
“I don’t think anything is fully settled yet,” he said.
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