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The rivalry
Sue Merz, 29, was a key member of the first U.S. Olympic women's hockey team, which won a gold medal at the 1998 Games in Nagano. The Greenwich, Conn., native first joined the U.S. national team at age 18 and played hockey at the University of New Hampshire. Now the defenseman wants a second Olympic gold medal. Check out Merz's diary as she trains for Salt Lake City. October 31, 2001 Upon returning from a successful road trip to Salt Lake City and San Jose, where we decisively beat our big rivals from the north, I decided to write today about a growing rivalry that has defined women's ice hockey over the past 11 years. And fortunately for me, I've been a part of it from the beginning. I broke onto this team in early 1990 when there really wasn't all that much national interest in women's ice hockey. I didn't know what to expect in terms of competition, but once we got to the World Championships in Ottawa, Canada, I saw a team and a country that thrived on hockey ... and I realized then that this was the team that the U.S. was going to have to overcome to be champions. This, it turns out, would take a few years.
Since that first World Championship tournament in Ottawa, a great rivalry has formed between the various Canadian and American teams that have competed against one another. For a majority of those years the U.S. has been the underdog of the two teams, always coming close but rarely winning a game against Canada. One can imagine the mentality that began to evolve within the American players after coming in second to the same team year in and year out. I mean there was to some extent a respect that formed for Canada, but there was a lot of anger and bitterness towards them as well. I wonder how those feelings would have differed if we had been the winners all those years instead of runners-up. But slowly the gap between Canada and the U.S. has gotten smaller. Only four short years ago, leading up to the inaugural appearance of women's ice hockey in the Olympics, the U.S. and Canada were tied 7-7 in games going into the Olympic Games. That's a HUGE improvement from the years before that. And we all know how the Olympics turned out, don't we? Last season, we had a winning record against Canada, 3-2. Not many know about that though since we lost to them once again at the World Championships. Gearing up for this season I find that there's just as much respect for our competitors, and probably a little less bitterness. I think that's because we know now that we can play with this team. We're not afraid of them. We know we can win. This season we've got eight games against Canada. We're 2-0 as of today. This looks promising. -- Sue
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