Ice hockey-Thompson ends long U.S. wait for world championship gold
Ice Hockey - IIIHF World Championships - Final - Switzerland v United States - Avicii Arena, Stockholm, Sweden - May 25, 2025 Frank Nazar of the U.S. in action with Switzerland's Christian Marti Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency via REUTERS
Ice Hockey - IIIHF World Championships - Final - Switzerland v United States - Avicii Arena, Stockholm, Sweden - May 25, 2025 Conor Garland of the U.S. in action Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency via REUTERS
Ice Hockey - IIIHF World Championships - Final - Switzerland v United States - Avicii Arena, Stockholm, Sweden - May 25, 2025 Clayton Keller of the U.S. celebrates winning the final with the trophy Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency via REUTERS
Ice Hockey - IIIHF World Championships - Final - Switzerland v United States - Avicii Arena, Stockholm, Sweden - May 25, 2025 Tage Thompson of the U.S. celebrates winning the final with the trophy Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency via REUTERS
STOCKHOLM - The United States' 1-0 overtime victory over Switzerland brought to an end a long wait for a gold medal for the Americans, who despite sharing the biggest professional league in the game with Canada, have struggled at international level.
Hockey history is clouded by the awarding of world champion status to the winners of the Olympic competition for many years, but the U.S.'s only stand-alone victory had come in 1933 before Tage Thompson's sudden-death winner on Sunday ended their long wait for the trophy.
"It feels awesome. I mean, it's been so long for the U.S. It feels great putting this jersey back on, it's been a long time for me, and to be able to come out with a gold medal, it's pretty fantastic," an elated Michael McCarron told Reuters.
"And in overtime fashion, there's no better way to win a game," the forward added.
Given that the Americans have not won Olympic gold since 1980, not one of the current team was even born the last time their nation stood on the top step of the podium, and Sunday's winning squad was overcome with joy and relief as they celebrated their win.
"I mean, we had some jam (good play), they had some jam. There were some lulls in the game for us, and sometimes that we were able to take it over, and both goalies played really spectacular," McCarron explained.
"And three on three, anything can happen. It's a little worrisome - going into three on three, you never know what can happen. Luckily, we have some great shooters on our team, and Tage was able to get it in there for us."
Fellow forward Drew O'Connor was on the bench with McCarron when the game was decided.
"Honestly, I feel like sometimes it's tougher when you're watching and you're not on the ice. When you get up and go out there, it's a little easier, you're just kind of playing. But, yeah, there's a lot of nerves," he told Reuters.
Many of the American players didn't even see the winning puck hit the net.
"I don't know when it did! I just heard the buzzer, and I just jumped out and I thought, hopefully it went in, so I'm glad it did," a beaming McCarron said with his historic gold medal hanging around his neck. REUTERS
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He said: "I was on a honeymoon period in 2023 when many players didn't know much about me, and things were going well for me and I had some wins in big tournaments like the Singapore Smash. "This year, I still had some good wins against strong opponents, such as China's top-30 player Chen Yuanyu at the 2025 Asian Cup group stage, but they were not in such tournaments with a lot of ranking points. "I feel my game is stronger now and I'm more experienced, so I'm not focusing on the ranking now. I just need to focus on my game and naturally, the ranking will come." Before his CTTSL debut, Quek will spearhead a group of 10 Singaporeans competing at the June 26 -July 2 Asian Youth Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He said: "My focus will firstly be on motivating the younger ones to get some wins with me in the team event first, before my singles event later. "My game is good enough for this level and there's no player there that I think I have no chance to beat, and I think we have good players in our team too." [embed] [[nid:717602]] This article was first published in The Straits Times . Permission required for reproduction.
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While his club comprise relatively unheralded players such as 34th-ranked Wen Ruibo, Ning Xiankun (133rd) and Niu Guankai (175th), Quek will get the chance to pit his skills against the world's top two players Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin, as well as Olympic champions such as Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin, who no longer compete on the World Table Tennis circuit. The 19-year-old, who has played in leagues in India, France and Spain, told The Straits Times: 'This is the best league in the world and not everyone gets to play in it, so I want to make full use of this stint to learn as much as I can from the best players in the world. 'Wen is 18 and I kept in touch with him after previous competitions, and I'm also looking forward to test myself against Fan, whom I have not played against. I've heard there will be two team matches in a day for four days in a row, so I have to get myself physically ready for this challenge.' Quek missed the June 6-10 first stage of the competition in Hebei as he was helping Dabang Delhi to a top-four finish in India's Ultimate Table Tennis from May 29 to June 15. He will make his CTTSL debut in the July 25-28 second stage in Fujian before the Aug 29-Sept 1 third stage in Xinjiang. Anhui Zhongcheng are currently sixth out of nine teams, with the top four sides advancing to the championship play-offs. Eddy Tay, Singapore Table Tennis Association senior manager for high performance, shared that the opportunity arose from their relationship with Anhui Zhongcheng, who provided sparring partners for the STTA. He added: 'While their club president was here with the players, we talked about whether it would be possible for them to recruit Izaac. They felt that at his age, Izaac has potential and room for growth, and hope that his youth and competitiveness will help them. 'We have made a request for him to play as much as possible as we don't want to send him there just to sit on the bench. We hope he can gain as much experience as possible training with and playing against the Chinese.' Singapore's first Under-15 boys world No. 1 in 2021, Quek had enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past few years, as he claimed notable scalps such as India's Commonwealth Games champion and Sharath Kamal and Sweden's 2019 world championships silver medallist Mattias Falck en route to a career-high men's singles ranking of 55th in November 2023. He also teamed up with Koen Pang to achieve some outstanding results in the men's doubles, as they stunned China's then world No. 1 Yuan Licen and Xiang Peng to reach the last four at the WTT Finals in 2024, when they also won silver at the Asian championships. In January, they rose to fifth in the world. However, Quek's ranking has slipped to 106th in the men's singles and 12th in the men's doubles as he started a business diploma course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic after the 2024 Olympics. But both the STTA and the player are not unduly worried. 'There are mitigating factors for the dip as he is just making the transition to polytechnic and has not played in as many competitions as before,' Tay said. 'Despite recent losses, including narrow defeats at the world championships, we feel Izaac has generally done well and has improved in terms of his consistency and overall game play in both the singles and doubles.' Tay said: 'We will need to strategise in terms of his tournament plan. The players' world ranking is not of such a big concern now as it would be in 2027 before the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. So we are devoting more time to training, and the overseas stints will have great value for his development.' On his part, Quek has made adjustments to his game to take lesser risks and try to be stronger in rallies. He has also increased the duration of each of his endurance exercises from 10 to 15 minutes in his 12 training sessions across each week. He said: 'I was on a honeymoon period in 2023 when many players didn't know much about me, and things were going well for me and I had some wins in big tournaments like the Singapore Smash. 'This year, I still had some good wins against strong opponents, such as China's top-30 player Chen Yuanyu at the 2025 Asian Cup group stage, but they were not in such tournaments with a lot of ranking points. 'I feel my game is stronger now and I'm more experienced, so I'm not focusing on the ranking now. I just need to focus on my game and naturally, the ranking will come.' Before his CTTSL debut, Quek will spearhead a group of 10 Singaporeans competing at the June 26-July 2 Asian Youth Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He said: 'My focus will firstly be on motivating the younger ones to get some wins with me in the team event first, before my singles event later. 'My game is good enough for this level and there's no player there that I think I have no chance to beat, and I think we have good players in our team too.' David Lee is senior sports correspondent at The Straits Times focusing on aquatics, badminton, basketball, cue sports, football and table tennis. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
