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Its no surprise Abby Roque found hockey.
Pat Martin
Thats a natural by-product of growing up with a dad who coached college hockey in Sault Ste.
Its all I wanted to do, Roque tells SELF.
Roque is one of eight newcomers to Team USAthe 15 other members all have prior Olympic experience.
Pat Martin
In fact, shell be the first.
Somebody told me that the other day, and I was blown away, Roque says.
Minority players need representation.
Pat Martin
I want to be a piece of that and say, Im here.
We do all the work that an NHL hockey player does, Roque says.
We just want to be paid a good livable wage and be treated like true professionals.
Thats not to say there hasnt been some progress.
SELF: Youre training for what is hopefully going to be your first Olympics in Beijing.
How does that feel?
Abby Roque:Its a stressful process.
Youre trying to make an Olympic team while being grateful that youre living your dream.
But there are team cuts to be made.
And Im coming off an injurywe were playing in Canada and I took a nasty spill.
I tore some ligaments in my ankle.
So its a lot of stress.
But its good stress because you have a chance to be on an Olympic roster.
What would it mean to you to be at the Olympics?
It means the world if youre able to be on that stage.
Womens hockey doesnt get coverage anytime besides the Olympics.
Its sad because we play a lot of games.
But because its the Olympics, people watch, and they love it.
These games are unbelievable, and they get so much press and heat.
People love watching us play.
It would be truly special to be in this game that people around the country are all tuning into.
Thats obviously been led by the veterans on the team for years.
How do you want to continue to move that fight forward?
Im not saying we need to be paid millions.
But we do all the work that an NHL player does.
And we just want to be paid a good livable wage and be treated like true professionals.
What makes womens ice hockey so special and exciting?
What are people missing by not being able to really interact with the womens side of the sport?
A lot of people are missing our personalities.
Fans dont want to just see these players on the ice.
They see what theyre like.
People are more invested if theyre funny, or theyre always messing up the play; theyre a hothead.
Thats missing because we dont have the coverage that other sports do.
Theres such a double standard in hockey.
Or if you swear at the ref in the NHL, theyre going to swear right back at you.
But if you swear at a ref in womens hockey, theyll think youre unladylike.
So,I want to talk a little bit about your heritage.
I think its a huge deal.
Hockey really is, in general, a white male club.
The whole worlds power structures are overwhelmingly white and male, and thats certainly true in sports.
But hockey feels like its an especially white sport and has been for many years.
Was that at all surprising to you?
Its not that surprising based on how hockey culture is.
Ive been in the U.S. program and I havent seen many minority players represented at this level.
Because not many minority players have had the privilege to play or have felt included.
Thats something that needs to change in hockey as a whole.
You just said something I think is so important to highlight: this idea of feeling welcome.
But its literally about, When you show up to a practice, do you feel welcome?
But I also grew up in a place where it wasnt very common to be a woman playing hockey.
You dont feel like you belong, in a way.
Everybody always made me feel welcome.
It was just that it wasnt normal.
But hockey is such a generational sport.
Because my dad played hockey, it was very easy for me to go to the rink.
So I just kept doing it.
I was like, I dont care what people think, Im going to be there.
And you want to go to the rink, but you dont know what people are talking about.
You dont know what a shin pad is.
You dont know how to tie your skates.
And thats something that absolutely needs to change in hockey.
Tell me how youre thinking about that going into this Olympic moment.
Obviously, Ive had to work for it.
But Ive been lucky to have a hockey family around me and get these opportunities and feel included.
And not everybody has had that.
The sport is only going to get better when it becomes more inclusive and more diverse.
A lot of that is visibility.
People dont understand how much work womens hockey players put into becoming good at the sport.
But its also challenging when you realize that the top we can go isnt that high.
Over the years thats been the most trying thing since I started playing college hockey, just realizing that.
And for me, its hard.
But its also not that hard, because this is what I want to be doing.
I want to be playing hockey every day.
Interview has been edited and condensed.Meet all of SELFs 2022 Olympic and Paralympic cover stars here.
