At State of the Union, Trump Announces Medal of Freedom for U.S. Hockey Goalie Connor Hellebuyck 

Near the start of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, the President evoked a campaign promise from 2016: that Americans would win so much under him that they’d tire of it. “Our country is winning again,” Trump boasted. “In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.”  As prime evidence of the country’s winning streak, he then welcomed into the House chamber the U.S. men’s national hockey team, “who just made the entire nation proud,” after they beat Canada 2-1 in a tense overtime at the 2026 Winter Olympics final in Milan on Sunday. FBI Director Kash Patel was seen celebrating with the team in their locker room after the final. Trump spoke about how exciting the game was for him to watch, singling out in particular the performance of Connor Hellebuyck, saying he’d “never seen a goaltender play as well as” Hellebuyck did. Hellebuyck stopped 41 shots in goal for the U.S. “I asked him, ‘The one shot, the one where you put your stick on the back and it hit the neck of your stick and bounced off, did you practice that or was that a little lucky?’” Trump said. “He refused to answer that question.” Trump then said that he would soon present Hellebuyck with the U.S. government’s highest civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Previous athlete recipients of the medal include golfer Tiger Woods, basketball players Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and baseball legend Willie Mays. “Great athletes have gotten that—very great, the best—and I thought he deserved it,” Trump said of Hellebuyck. “What a special job you did and what special champions you are.” Trump also acknowledged the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team, who also defeated Team Canada to win Olympic gold on Feb. 19. Trump said the women’s team—which had declined Trump’s invitation to attend the State of the Union, with a USA Hockey spokesperson citing “previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games”—will visit the White House “soon.”