Team USA fans are criticizing President Donald Trump for overlooking gold medal-winning women’s hockey goaltender Aerin Frankel during his State of the Union address Tuesday, wondering why she wasn’t invited to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom like her U.S. men’s team counterpart Connor Hellebuyck.
Frankel stopped all but one of 31 shots on goal during her team’s win over Canada at the Winter Olympics. She allowed just one shot on target out of a total of 99 shots sent to her net (a save percentage of 0.980) during the team’s undefeated run at the Games.
Frankel and fellow goalkeeper Gwyneth Philips helped win the U.S. women’s team’s third-ever gold since the Olympic sport was introduced in 1998.
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Hellebuyck, meanwhile, denied 41 of the 42 shots Canada fired at him in the Olympic final, including one phenomenal stop of a possible go-ahead from Canadian Devon Toews, who proved crucial in the men’s victory in extra time.
The victory ended a 46-year drought of gold medals in hockey for the U.S. men, who accepted an invitation to visit the White House and attend Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday.
Hellebuyck allowed just six pucks to get past him out of 137 shots directed toward his net (a 0.956 save percentage) during the U.S. men’s undefeated journey to gold in Milan.
However, some hockey fans defended Trump’s decision in light of the fact that the US women’s team had declined the president’s reluctant invitation to also attend the SOTU speech.
“The women’s team has declined their invitation to the White House!” one X user noted. “They had all the opportunities in the world, but chose a different path.”
The women’s team declined Trump’s invitation after a demeaning joke he made about being required to invite them, although the team cited scheduling conflicts as the reason for the decline. Trump has said the women’s team will be honored “soon” with a visit to the White House.
