Meaghan Mikkelson Shares Emotional Statement After Being Cut From Olympic Hockey Team

On January 11th Team Canada’s Women’s National Hockey Team announced their 23 person roster for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Canada has 10 first time Olympians on the roster, however one veteran fell short of reclaiming her spot.

Shortly after the announcement, Meaghan Mikkelson took to Twitter to share her emotion: “As most of you know, suffered a major knee injury in a game back on May 29th 2021. For those that are maybe not aware, the damage to my left knee was extensive. I tore my lateral and medial meniscus, LCL, and MCL and completely severed my ACL. After consulting with doctors, and after my surgery to repair all the damage, I decided that I wanted to rehab my knee and to continue my goal of making the 2022 Canadian Women’s Hockey Team.”

Mikkelson is a three-time Olympian, winning gold in 2010 and 2014 and most recently silver in 2018. The chance to compete once again in 2022 was her motivation to quickly recover from an injury she stated had a timeline of 9-12 months.

“In that moment, I decided that for me, whether or not I was successful in the end was going to be defined by things within my control and whether or not I would be able to look back and say that I had done everything in my power to return to playing at an elite level, leaving no stone unturned.”

For Mikkelson, success was not going to be judged on whether or not she made the team but rather if she did everything in her power to attempt a comeback. She had been putting in the work, but unfortunately ran out of time. Yet she still holds her head up high, as she should.

”Though I am not headed to Beijing 2022, I am extremely proud of what I have just accomplished. In the beginning, I wasn’t even going to get a chance to try to come back. [...] I had the courage to put myself on the line attempting to defy all the odds knowing that no matter what I did, it still might not be enough.”

According to Mikkelson she was more than successful. With her family by her side, she was not only able to persevere through her own adversity, but show her children that “no adversity is too great to overcome.”

As for her future, Team Canada fans would love to see her back on the ice, but Mikkelson is taking it one day at a time.

“What the future holds for me, I am not quite sure. But what I do know is that I will continue to find joy in every day, to be grateful for my journey, for all the wonderful people in my life, and for all that I have.”

At 37-years-old one could speculate that this could have been her last Olympics. Supporters across Twitter had nothing but positive things to say in response to her opening up about her recovery process. Two days later she took to Twitter once more to thank everyone for the positive responses she got from her story.

Link to full statement: https://twitter.com/Mikkelson12/status/1481012439067938816?s=20