It is safe to say that when there is a hockey game on, most Canadians can be found zeroed in on their TV screens cheering on their favorite team…and even more so when it is Olympic hockey. If you were watching women’s hockey during the 2010 and 2014 winter games, you would have noticed the amazing Meaghan Mikkelson. However, on October 6th, Meaghan could be found at Chestermere High School speaking to a full house of students anxious to hear about her journey.
Mikkelson took the students through the story of her life. Telling them that at age 13, sitting on her living room floor watching the Women’s Canadian National hockey team play at the 1998 Winter Olympics and saying to herself “I want to do that. I want to play hockey in the Olympics and represent Canada”. She continued through her schooling, graduated high school and attended the University of Wisconsin where she won two national championships.
When she graduated with a degree in business and marketing, Meaghan returned to Calgary where she got a job working downtown doing very well at her career while continuing to play hockey. However, the dream of that 13 year old girl wanting to represent her country in a sport that she loved, drove her to make the decision to quit her job and pursue her dreams of Olympic gold.
With footage of the gold medal game in Sochi played on February 20, 2014, Mikkelson took the students through the emotions and feelings of a team facing a silver medal win as they were behind two goals to the USA. Four days prior to this game, Mikkelson broke her hand and she stressed to the students that even in times of adversity and road blocks, anything is possible. Even though it has been 8 months since that Canadian Women’s hockey team came back with 2 ½ minutes left to tie the USA and then win the gold in overtime, as the footage was played for the captivated students, you could still see the two time Gold Medalist fill with emotion as she watched that winning goal.
Following the 2014 Sochi games, Mikkelson and team mate Natalie Spooner were cast to participate in The Amazing Race Canada. She made the comparison of Olympic hockey to The Amazing Race by saying, “when preparing for the Olympics I felt I had done years of training, I knew exactly what to do and how the game is played. Nothing prepared me for what we went through on the Amazing Race Canada”. Mikkelson and Spooner went on to take second place in The Amazing Race Canada, only falling behind the first place team by seven minutes. Meaghan reflected saying, “this wasn’t about winning, and it was about the journey. Being able to travel to all of those amazing places and to be able to stop, enjoy and just being in the moment”.
With two Olympic gold medals and a second place finish in The Amazing Race Canada, what is next for Mikkelson……the hope of that third gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
