Ice, ice, baby

Let's forget about politics for a week, shall we? I mean, it's Olympics time! Or, more accurately, it was Olympics time. But I was lucky enough in the last week to score a visit from Grand Forks native and UND alumni Jocelyne Lamoureux, otherwise known as The Identical Twin Sister Who Scored The Gold-Medal-Winning Goal In Sudden-Death-Shootout-Time-Against-Canada-At-The-Pyeongchang-Olympics. (And I was so excited that I wore my old-school UND hockey jersey to work to celebrate the occasion.) Jocelyne was at the tail end of a whirlwind victory tour that saw her fly from South Korea to Los Angeles and then New York, Tampa, Washington, DC, and then back to New York. After she stopped by my office, she was on the way with the rest of her teammates to the NBC Studios at 30 Rock, where they appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Jocelyne, though exhausted and mostly without a voice after her whirlwind week, couldn't have been more proud or more humble. "It's dramatic fashion, how we won-to do it on that world stage and in a moment like that-but to be able to share that and celebrate that with teammates is the ultimate."

Along with her twin sister Monique, Jocelyn already had two silver medals from previous Winter Olympics in Sochi and Vancouver, along with the new gold one. I asked her if she had a trophy room at home in Grand Forks where she kept all her hardware. She just laughed. "My parents probably have a box of stuff at their place, but my husband and I keep our house pretty normal. Though this one will probably go somewhere a little bit safer than the silvers!"

Both sisters learned to skate in Grand Forks when they were two or three and started playing hockey a year or two after that-seems like the sport runs in the family. "Our dad played hockey at UND and won two national championships-my mom was a swimmer and they met at UND-and they had my brother Jean-Philippe, who we call Phil, and Jacques, Pierre-Paul, Mario, and Monique and I in five years of each other. Right now we're 28, and my oldest brother is 33. Three of my brothers played Division I college hockey, Pierre-Paul played Major Juniors in Canada, and Mario and Phil are still playing overseas in Europe. It's tough to keep it all straight!"

Jocelyne herself was working for the UND women's hockey team as a strength coach when the program was abruptly shut down by the university last March due to financial difficulties. It's not a decision that sits well with the three-time Olympian and gold-medal winner. "The way the players found out, the way the staff found out, the lack of ownership by the athletic department and the university in general was disappointing," she said, "but then add to that the fact that the president of the university, president Kennedy, who was so involved in that decision-making is, less than a year later, looking to leave the university for somewhere else."

UND women's hockey sent eight players to the Sochi Olympics, and at least that many players at Pyeongchang came from the UND program. That's more players from a single sport-men's or women's-that the university has ever sent to the Olympics.

"I understand that the university was in financial distress," Jocelyne said. "I understand that it's a business, and the NCAA is a business. There was a way to make it work, but I don't think any solutions were tried. Can you imagine the publicity of having a dozen Olympians talking about your school?

That said, Jocelyne was instrumental last year in forcing USA Hockey to give the women's team something like the same benefits and salary they give the men's team-a huge victory that will be felt by players for years. "I've been married for almost four years and I'd like to start a family, and because of that financial support we're getting from USA Hockey, I'm hoping to have a child and hopefully continue to pursue my passion," she said. "I don't think women should have to choose between one and the other; I think that women should be able to do it all. I'm passionate about having a family life and being able to pursue my dreams.

I asked her what her husband did, expecting her to say something with the word "hockey" in it. Instead, she said that he's a sales rep for a medical company.

"Aha!" I said. "The one person in your life who doesn't seem to be a hockey guy!"

Jocelyne just laughed. "Not quite: He played at UND with two of my brothers-that's how we met."