Prior to their heartbreaking overtime loss to the U.S. in the gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Thursday, Wayne Gretzky said the Canadian women’s hockey team should be proud of their contributions to the fast-growing sport.
“These women are great athletes,” Gretzky told CTV National News anchor Heather Butts in Milan during Thursday’s game.
“They train hard, they prepare hard, they love the game and they have passion for it … these girls deserve a lot of credit; the game has prospered.”
Since women’s hockey was added to the Winter Olympics in 1998, all but one of the gold medal games have pitted Canada against the U.S., with the Americans capturing their third such win in the storied rivalry on Thursday.
“Rivalries are what propel the game, right? (At the 1987 Canada Cup), it was Canada against the Soviet Union, now it’s Canada against the U.S. … but at the end of the day, you become friends,” Gretzky said.
Around this time last year, Gretzky was heavily criticized online for his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, who had made numerous comments about turning Canada into the 51st state.
Gretzky was introduced as the honorary captain for Team Canada before the highly anticipated 4 Nations Face-Off final last February but did not wear a Canadian jersey or speak out against Trump’s comments at the time.
The Canadian and U.S. men’s Olympic hockey teams are staring down a potential rematch of the 4 Nations final, as well as the gold medal game of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, both won by Canada in overtime. If the two teams can advance past their respective semifinal games on Friday, they will face off for gold.
Canada will face Finland at 10:40 a.m. ET, while the U.S. plays Slovakia at 3:10 p.m.
Gretzky, who never won an Olympic medal in his playing career, said he likes the team’s chances against Finland, then against either the U.S. or Slovakia in the gold medal game.
“The best player in the game, (Connor) McDavid, has been the best player in the tournament and I anticipate Canada going forward will only get better in the semifinal and the final,” he said.
“So obviously, I’m predicting a Canadian gold, but I will tell you this: the Americans are really good, too.”
Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time leader in points, also touched on the financial barriers many families face when trying to get their children into hockey, a challenge that’s plagued the sport for years.
“That’s the hardest part,” he said, noting that without the help of his grandparents to purchase sticks, skates and other equipment, his parents may not have been able to afford the cost of the sport when Gretzky was young.
“That’s one of the issues that we’ve got to try to figure out.”
With files from CTV News’ Heather Butts
