A world separates those who are excellent and devoted athletes and those who become Olympians; a second gulf exists between those gifted Olympians and those even fewer who medal in their sports. New Hampshire native Katie King is one of the few-she has taken home two medals as a member of the US Olympic Hockey Team-a gold in 1998 and a silver in 2002. And now, as a member of the U.S. National Team for 2002, she is playing with hopes of a third Olympic medal.

Katie King started playing ice hockey when she was four, following in the footsteps of her brother David, three years her senior. “I played hockey with the boys pretty much the whole time I was growing up,” says Katie. “It wasn’t until high school that I joined a local girls hockey club.”

It was around this time that Katie recognized her special talents - or rather, that others recognized her. At age fourteen, she was invited to attend a girls’ hockey development camp, and did so well at the high school level that Katie was recruited by Brown University, where she majored in Organizational Behavior and Management. She twice led her team in winning the Ivy League Championships. In 1997, Katie made the National Team in 1997, which placed second in the World Championships.

Katie’s first Olympic performance at the Women’s Ice Hockey Team’s first Olympic performance was outstanding. She tied for first in team scoring, with eight points. She also was one of the team’s key players in the 2002 Olympics.

Her training regimen during the season will keep her on track to repeat and better her performance, but she is concerned about how to maintain her routine during the five-month off-season, without adequate funding. With support from the U.S. Athletic Trust, however, Katie would be able to train at the level she needs to in order to have a command performance at the Olympics in 2006.

I have had the opportunity to participate in many great things in my life. I have played in many championships with both softball and hockey. Sports have been one of the most exciting things that I have ever done. But clearly one thing stands out when I think of my best moment in my athletic career. It was when we won the gold medal in the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. We had a team that started out one year prior to the games and had one focus in mind. There were no I’s in this team. It was really the most incredible team that I have been on. To see the focus on everyone’s faces day in and day out. Hockey was our lives. Something we had spent so much time on because we loved it. The hard work and dedication that we put into this team really showed. We had the committment of every single person on the team as well as the staff. Everyone believed that we could do it and in the end we did.

That final game was just amazing. To think back now, it was like a dream. Everyone was ready when their line went out, everyone was focused on their job. Nobody cared about anything but the team and our goal, the gold medal! And for it to be the first gold medal in women’s hockey in the olympics, made it even better! The sacrifices that we were willing to give up for the time that we were together was incredible. Some gave up their husbands and everyone gave up a “normal life” to train together and be with the team. Now, after playing on 2 different olympic teams I realize how special our team in 1998 really was. I think now, some of us may have taken that for granted more recently, but when you think about this team that we had in 1998, it was probably the team that had the most desire and heart than any team that I have played on!

Katie King