KENOSEE LAKE - The Canadian women’s hockey team arrived back home from the Olympics in Beijing on Monday bringing home the gold medal, after winning 3-2 over the United States in the gold medal game.
Canada was already the defending world champions and has four Olympic gold medals, never finishing below silver, in the six tournaments since women’s hockey was introduced at the Nagano Games in 1998.
Micah Zandee-Hart - who lives in Saanichton, B.C., but has spent lots of time in the Kenosee Lake area, as her father Mick lives in the community - realized her lifelong dream of becoming an Olympian as she was among the 10 Team Canada newcomers to make their Olympic debut at Beijing 2022.
“Playing at the Olympics was everything I thought it would be and more,” says Zandee-Hart. “To me, the Olympic Games always represented bringing people together and that’s exactly what they did, from within our team to back home as well.”
“Naturally I was nervous going into some of our big games, but I always try to shift that to the mentality of simply being excited and being grateful that I get to do something that matters to me.”
Zandee-Hart got a fair bit of ice time throughout the Olympics and recorded four assists, but she admits that’s never really something she pays attention to.
“My team won gold and scored a record-setting 54 goals throughout the tournament - that’s what matters most!”
During the medal ceremony, Team Canada members presented each other with their medals, in numerical order, followed by an emotional hug. Zandee-Hart, who wears No. 28, presented the gold medal to No. 29 – team captain and hockey icon Marie-Philip Poulin, who scored twice in the gold medal game.
Mick Hart watched the game with friends and explains what it was like watching his daughter on TV, winning a gold medal at the Olympics.
“I was pretty excited. I was very excited for her because it’s been a dream of hers for most of her life.”
“She persevered after she was cut from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic team and then she made the 2022 Beijing Olympic team and it paid off for her.”
“She’s very dedicated to her sport.”
Hart spent time texting back and forth with his daughter, getting updates on the team’s progress.
The hockey team has been training for the Olympics for many months.
“The girls were ‘gung ho’ to get gold this year.”
“Micah saved a goal at one point during the gold medal game on Abby Roque, she blocked two shots on a wide-open net in the second period and that could have been a turning point as we were up 2-0 at that time. That made a huge difference.”
An interesting southeast connection was shared by Hart as he reminisced about his daughter’s hockey career:
“When Micah was here (at Kenosee) at 8 or 9 years old, Colleen Sostorics (formerly of Kennedy) was having a hockey school in Whitewood so we signed her up for that. She became Micah’s favourite player after that.”
Sostorics won three gold medals playing defence for Team Canada at the Olympics.
A short time later, Sostorics and Team Canada were preparing for the Olympics and played some exhibition games against Team USA. One of them was in Victoria. Zandee-Hart’s mom took her to this game. Following the game, players were signing autographs,
Zandee-Hart comes along in the lineup and Sostorics remembered her.
“Hey what are you doing out here?” says Sostorics. Zandee-Hart’s response was: “I actually live here.”
Needless to say, Sostorics has been a big inspiration for Zandee-Hart.
“I’ve got pictures of Micah at varying ages with the Colleen Sostorics sign at Kennedy in the backdrop,” explains Hart.
“I texted Colleen the next morning after the win and I sent her a picture of Micah with the gold medal and a big smile on her face and I just said ‘Thanks for the inspiration Colleen!’” said Hart.
Sostorics texted back a picture of her daughter watching the gold medal presentation. “Now Micah is an inspiration to my daughter.”
“Colleen Sostorics brought my dream to life,” said Zandee-Hart. “I knew what I wanted but meeting Colleen and seeing what she accomplished, coming from the small town of Kennedy….that is what made me truly believe I could do it too.”
Zandee-Hart now has an Olympic medal with which to inspire young players.
She has fulfilled her lifelong dream of going to the Olympics, bringing home the gold to boot, and shares what she has planned for her future.
“On a hockey scale, my goal is to do it again. I want to keep building my game, and especially after my injury this past year I still have some work to do to get back where I want to be physically. Aside from hockey I want to commit to helping grow the women's game in B.C. and work a bit on some other passions in my life.”
