Is There a Lesson for USA Rugby from the Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Win?

02.23.2026Eagles

USA wins Gold in hockey. USA U20s celebrate a win over Canada. Photos USA Hockey and USA Rugby.

Author: Alex Goff

Is there a lesson to be learned from the USA Men's Hockey gold medal?

Ice hockey is not completely unrelated to rugby in terms of how it develops elite players—super talents look for the right high school or junior hockey (select-sides/academies) playing options, can go through elite colleges or not, and battle against other nations whose sporting culture is much more connected to the game than the situation in the USA.

It's not exactly the same, obviously, but there are some similarities. And at the Olympic level there have always been challenges. When the Olympics were nominally amateur, the USA team was made up of college players and a few minor league hockey players. Sometimes they found lightning in a bottle (1960, 1980), but more often than not, even with great players, it was tough. Look at the roster for the 1984 team, which had two NHL Hall-of-Famers on its roster and several others with sterling NHL careers, and they finished 7th.

And then when the Olympic tournament opened up to professionals, there was still the issue that Canada (where hockey is unofficially their national sport ... officially it's lacrosse), and Sweden, and Russia (when they weren't getting banned) had equal or superior talent and backing.

That was all true. The USA team starting in 1998 had NHL players on it, and in the seven Olympiads through 2022 won two medals, both silver. Canada, Russia (in various forms), Sweden, and Finland (who has the most medals since 1998) all did better.

But during that time something else started happening. The USA started winning the World Junior Championships. From 1974 through 2003 the USA never won Gold at the annual WJC. They won eight medals, but never Gold. In 2004, they broke that drought and won again in 2010 and 2013.

Then a streak of results began. In 2017 they won Gold, 2018 Bronze, 2019 Silver, 2020 no medal, 2021 Gold, 2022 no medal, 2023 Bronze, 2024 Gold, 2025 Gold.

After not winning Gold for 30 years, the USA won Gold seven times in the last 21 years, including three in the last five. That commitment to supporting the young team and the program—the when, the where, the coaching staff, the attention given it, the commitment from USA Hockey—not only led to an Olympic Gold Medal, but potentially some in the future.

Eight members of the USA Olympic team won Gold at the World Juniors. An additional three were in camp for the team. Now that number might not blow you away, but consider that not every player can be available for the WJC, and some were on the cusp of making the NHL or already playing in it, making competition in the WJC difficult.

But that's the whole point. Just because some players take a different path. USA captain Auston Matthews helped the USA U18s win Gold at their championships, but by the time he was to be playing for the U20s, he was winning the Rookie of the Year Award (the Calder Trophy) in the NHL and playing for the USA senior men's team.

That's a pathway, too.

How this translates to rugby I hope is fairly clear. College athletes can be brought along and get their international competition; many of them would be in a U20 or U23 scenario. You feed that team with U18s, but also see how someone might vault past all of that because he's special, or you might see someone blossom as a collegiate.

But you have to take the long view. Players who won Gold in Milan were on the 2017 WJC Gold Medal team. That was nine years ago. These players don't necessarily jump right onto the USA team, but they will, and the experience will help.

Look for it. The kids on the USA hockey team at the 2024 or 2025 World Juniors will be in the Alps for 2030 or Utah for 2034. USA Hockey knows that and takes that long-term view (and hopefully will keep that view).

USA Rugby has, of late, shown signs that they understand the long-term view of supporting not just this year's U20s or U18s, but next year's, and the year after. Too often we've done it for a while and then shrugged and said "where are the new stars?" Forgetting that they were there if you had just given them a chance to play earlier.

Is there a lesson to be learned from the USA Hockey Team. You bet there is.