Road to Torino

Women's hockey is one of the earlier sports reporting in, with its player lineup for Torino announced today.

22 women will represent the USA in Torino in February, looking to improve on their silver medal performance in Salt Lake City. 2002 proved a heartbreaker as the USA women's 35-game winning streak was put to an end with Canada's 3-2 victory in the gold medal game.

It's fun to glance at the roster. Of 22 women on the team, only one is from outside the snow belt (southern California). Otherwise, no one hails from farther south than Ohio! It illustrates how small and very regional most winter sports remain -- even one of the more mainstream ones.

The bittersweet note is that team veteran Cammi Granato was left off the roster. At 34, she's the face of women's hockey in this country, as Mia Hamm is with soccer, and she's not finding it easy to accept she won't end her illustrious career at what would have been her 3rd Olympics.

In other ice hockey news, the men's team recently announced Carolina Hurricanes coach and 1988 and 1994 Olympian Peter LaViolette as head coach for Torino. Selection for the men's Olympic team gets underway with a training camp for 39 hopefuls from the NHL next month in Colorado Springs.

More info at USAHockey.com

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this