The growth of women’s hockey since it was added as an Olympic sport in at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, has been exponential.
That popularity showed up in the ratings for the women’s gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Feb. 19. Team USA’s overtime victory against rival Canada was the most-watched women’s hockey game on record, according to NBC. It averaged 5.3 million viewers with an audience peak of 7.7 million viewers in overtime on USA and Peacock.
Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime, marking the Americans’ first Olympic gold medal since the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, which they won in a shootout. Team USA trailed much of the game, before Hilary Knight scored an equalizer with less than three minutes remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime.
“There was no way we were losing this game,’ Knight said. ‘That’s all. Simple as that. We had some awesome heavy hitters on the ice. I knew we were going to get possession, so I just had to find a place in front of the net.’
‘When Meg (Keller) pulled her move, I knew we had it immediately,’ Knight said.
Team USA has appeared in all but one gold medal game since 1998 — each time facing off against the Canadians. The Americans now have three golds.
‘The greatest rivalry in all sport for that reason, every game is tight,’ said Canadian defender Renata Fast, who assisted on Canada’s lone goal. ‘We knew that coming in every single battle, every single play is so important because the game is that close against this matchup. So this is the exact game we expected today, and obviously we just didn’t come out the way we wanted to.’
The next generation of the rivalry is in training. Women’s hockey has grown by leaps and bounds since 2000, as one of the fastest-growing youth sports in North America. USA Hockey reports that girls’ and women’s participation has surged 65% over the past 15 seasons.