WEBVTT - I Try Not To Talk Trash with Claire Thompson 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:02.720 Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we are 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:05.760 still watching that clip of Serena Williams crip walking in 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.360 the Super Bowl halftime performance, a clapback at critics from 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:11.600 the Olympics, and a chance to dog a dude to 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:13.480 try to dishear and her husband because he didn't get 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:13.840 the girl. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.439 Oh and plus she looked fire doing it. Let's go. 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.120 It's Wednesday, February twelveth and on today's show, we're skipping 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.040 the need to know and jumping right into my chat 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.759 with Claire Thompson, a defender for the Minnesota Frost of 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.200 the Pro Women's Hockey League. We talked on Monday about 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.440 how she's balancing medical school and hockey ambitions preparing for 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.800 the twenty twenty six Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, her affinity 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:36.599 for travel, and her minimal. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.279 Desire to trash talk. That interview is coming up right 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:52.440 after this joining us now. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:54.720 She's an Olympic gold medalist and World champ with Team 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.080 Canada Hockey, a defender for the Minnesota Frost of the 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.760 Professional Women's Hockey League, and currently on a little hockey 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.840 brain from medical school at the NYU Grossman School of medicine, 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.760 a Princeton Tiger, a fellow Michigan fan despite neither of 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.160 us attending. She's hung out with sled dogs in Alberta 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.399 and elephants in Thailand, and she once slept in a 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:12.120 sea through pot on the side of a mountain in Peru. 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.319 It's Claire Thompson. What's up, Claire? 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:16.600 Hi, thank you for having me. 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:18.240 I gotta start with Michigan. 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.400 I chose them after a lengthy process called college Football Bachelorette, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.640 wherein I needed to select a football team to root for. 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:26.880 Since I went to Cornell and it's not a big 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.200 college football school, how'd you end up rooting for Michigan? 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.959 Michigan was my dream school. We had a tournament in 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.760 Michigan in ann Arbor when I was in novice, I 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.440 think I was like eight years old, and we toured 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:43.800 the Michigan facilities and went to a men's hockey game there, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.199 And from then I was a dead set on going 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.960 to Michigan, despite them not having a women's team. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:51.400 Yeah, and then that ended up getting in the way. 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.560 Do you still feel bad about choosing Princeton over Cornell? 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:56.960 No, not at all. 0:01:57.920 --> 0:01:59.880 I was sad in the moment but I'm proud to 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:01.360 be prince. Sometimes you got over it. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.360 Okay, okay, important things first, Why are we still calling 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:05.760 women and hockey defencemen? 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:07.920 Can we work on that? What's our solution to this? 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:10.400 Yeah, I'm honestly not sure. 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.000 I think people try to use the gender neutral term 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:18.000 just defense and not put a gender to it. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.040 But yeah, definitely something we could work on. 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.440 Yeah, defense woman doesn't have the same ring to it. 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.040 But also defense doesn't feel grammatically correct sometimes, so I 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.600 end up just stumbling and saying defencemen and being like, ah, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:29.720 that's not that's not right. 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:31.760 I'm going to work on something to work on. 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:34.640 It's been so great to see you in the PWHL 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:36.840 this second season. Can you tell our listeners why you 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:37.880 didn't play in year one? 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.000 I couldn't play in year one because I was attending 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.040 medical school and the demands of my clinical training. I 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.600 just couldn't be at practice and in the hospital at 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:49.600 the same time. 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.760 So I had to pick one or the other. 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:53.920 And I had kind of already signed up for my 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.320 year of medical school before the league came together, so 0:02:57.639 --> 0:02:59.919 it was kind of a wasn't really a decision to 0:02:59.919 --> 0:03:00.359 be made. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.000 It was just unfortunate. I had to sit out last season. 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:04.799 Yeah, and then there was something with a visa too, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:06.600 where at one point you thought you might be able 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:08.400 to do both, and then it kind of threw a 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:09.600 wrench in the plans. 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.080 Yeah, I was on an F one student visa, so 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.880 I wasn't able to work a job that wasn't in 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:18.040 my field of study. 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:20.600 So I couldn't. 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:24.960 Sign a reserve player contract and be paid to play 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.880 hockey while my visa was for medicine. So I had 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.359 to wait a bit to switch my visa and get 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:34.880 work authorization and all that. So it never quite came 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.360 together last season. But for a while I was optimistic 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:40.440 that it was going to work out, but it didn't 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:41.200 end up happening. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.600 I feel like if this were the much sneakier men's 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:45.560 side of sports, they would have just like hired you 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.200 as a physical therapist, chock it up to a medical gig, 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:50.520 and then thrown you out on the ice. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.360 We got, Yeah, we got our sneakiness. 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.240 I know, but I didn't. You know, immigration and everything. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:58.240 It's pretty serious stuff. So I didn't want to do 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.720 anything that would like jeopardize my future abilities to work 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.000 or to play in the United States, so I went 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:09.400 by the book and waited the lengthy process of acquiring 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.400 a new visa and all of that. So it was 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.680 a bit of a bummer in the moment, but it 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.640 definitely gave me the chance to really lean into medical 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.039 school and be very present for this past year of training, 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:22.960 which in retrospect, I'm really grateful for. 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:24.800 That seems like the smart move. 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.280 I'm starting to understand why you're becoming a doctor ninety 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:28.880 ninth percentile in the MCATs. 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.039 Yeah. Yeah, it was a good test day for me. 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.400 I yeah, I don't know it worked out. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:37.480 You got lucky? 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.760 Sure, Yeah, nobody believes that clear. Okay, So, how tough 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.360 was it to put medical school on hold and enter 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.640 the league? Like, obviously there's a time limit for hockey 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.279 in a different way than there is for medicine, but 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.679 that's also something that requires a tremendous amount of work 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.039 and effort, and to be in the middle of it 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:56.320 and have to part with either. 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:57.320 How tough was that? 0:04:58.040 --> 0:04:59.000 It was pretty tough. 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.799 It was a sad realization that the people I started 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.640 medical school with and some of my best friends right 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.040 now wouldn't be the people I would graduate with and 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.479 wouldn't be the people that you know, you go through 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.320 all those milestones of taking your board exams together and 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.280 applying to residency and matching and all of that, all 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.839 those steps. It was it's a bit sad for me 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:21.640 to know that I won't be doing that alongside my 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:26.360 best friends, which is disappointing, But I also look at 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.960 how grateful I am to have best friends playing hockey, 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.919 and I couldn't imagine a world in which I wasn't 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.680 alongside those girls pushing for the next Olympics, pushing to 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.120 make the PWHL better. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.480 And so it was kind of I. 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.080 Had two worlds to choose from, and knowing I had 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.760 amazing people in both places, in two areas I wanted 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:47.400 to be a part of. 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:49.719 It was I was so grateful for the time I got. 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:51.839 To spend with my med school classmates and getting to 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:53.640 know them and stuff, but I was more than happy 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.080 to come back and be alongside all my hockey teammates 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.680 and everything. So I just really grateful to have such 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.440 amazing people that made making a decision so so hard. 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:08.320 Yeah, it feels like there's the similar bonding probably with 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.720 classmates in medical school, like not real trauma bonding, but 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:13.919 like it's stressful. There's a lot of tough days and 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.960 big tests and long night studying. Does it feel similar 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:19.960 to some of the bonds you make with teammates when 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.719 you're doing like super hard workouts and getting ready for 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:23.719 stressful tournaments. 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.599 Yeah, for sure, I think. Yeah, whenever you're kind of 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.080 put in the same positions as other people, and those 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.320 are the people you lean on because of shared experiences 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:35.760 and shared understanding of what you're going through in the 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.160 stressors you're facing. It's hard not to get very close 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.599 to those people. And then in New York at and 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.479 why you a lot of us were really fortunate, but 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.479 the Grossman School of Medicine has an apartment building that 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.479 they subsidize the rent for their medical students because it's 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.840 really expensive to be a medical school but also really 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:55.960 expensive to be living in New York. So then a 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.520 lot of us actually live together, and so it's you know, 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.279 shared experiences like being together a lot. 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:01.599 Of the time. 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.120 Yeah, it's very similar to being on a team and 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.320 working together to get through it, to get through those 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.160 tests and all of that. So yeah, you definitely form 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.600 really close bonds to people, and it makes the experience 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.960 that much better because of the people. But yeah, I 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:20.800 would say I never really thought of it like they 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:22.960 were my teammates. But they were my teammates, those yaws 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.360 going through all of all of those hardships together. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:28.040 This feels like a TV show. 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:29.800 I can't believe it hasn't been made yet that there 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.360 isn't a show about the medical school side of medicine. 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.080 When you all live in an apartment together. There's like 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.200 a million medical shows, and where there's one of the 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.440 doctors that also goes to hockey practice every day. I 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.160 think we need to pitch this, Claire, this is yeah, 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:43.800 all right, we. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:45.160 Need to pitch this. Do you know what type of 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:46.520 medicine you want to specialize in? 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.119 Yeah, I'm fairly certain I want to do orthopedic surgery. 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:55.160 Cool gosh, I just it's so overwhelming to even think 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.640 about trying to balance all your ambitions in one place 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.960 and another. Was there ever a point when you felt 0:07:59.920 --> 0:08:03.640 like it was sort of incompatible to be as ambitious 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.880 as you are in both spaces. 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.720 I'm not really, I think I you know, I haven't 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.360 really hit a point yet. I mean, I guess last 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:15.960 year you could say I wasn't able to do both, 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.080 but I still knew, like I was still playing hockey 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.640 and practicing, and I knew I was gonna come back 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.800 to the p WHL, And so no, there's never really 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.000 been a point where I haven't thought it was possible 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:32.200 to do it all. Definitely, some long nights involved some 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.200 busy travel days and stuff, But at no point have 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.360 I ever thought that I haven't been able to achieve 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.040 both or achieve my goals in either because of the other. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.920 So I'm really grateful. I think that none of this 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.880 would be possible without the people in my life supporting 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.920 me in both sides and supporting the person that I 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:56.679 am who wants to do everything and so I am. 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.280 I would be mistaken not to acknowledge the people that 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.200 make like the team around the team, the people that 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:03.200 make this all possible. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.240 But so far it's been going well. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.600 I was listening to on the Jackson Jills podcast and 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.640 I noticed that Tessa said when she walked up to 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.760 start the interview, she joked that were you studying and 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.800 you said, yes, So are you still sort of maintaining 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.120 this through line of medical study behind the scenes just 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:22.960 so that you're ready to go when you head back. 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:24.280 Yeah? 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.840 I am doing a bit of work on the side. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.880 I have to take one of my more important board exams. 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.440 I'm probably going to try to take that in the spring, 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:35.800 so I study a little bit each day for that, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.400 just so that when I sit down and start studying 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:42.640 again for it, truly it's stuff is still fresh and 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.240 there's you know, a lot of time across the days 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.080 that I can just put a little bit in and 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.280 chip away at the large amount of content that I 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.920 have to get through. And then I still do research 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:58.880 for the Sports Medicine Orthopedic Department at NYU to stay 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.360 involved with kind of that community and just reaffirm that 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.240 that is what I want to spend the rest of 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.320 my life doing after I retire from hockey. 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:09.160 Unbelievable. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.720 So when you were trying to do a little of both, 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.720 what does a day in your life look like? Because 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:16.200 I feel like it's got to be a lot of 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.880 discipline to get you know, your time management and everything 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:21.680 handled so you can get it all in in twenty 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:22.600 four hours. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:24.640 Yeah, it kind of depended. 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.520 Last year I was on my clinical rotation, so even 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.760 within those rotations, the days looked very different from being 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.960 in the OAR in early starts and rounding on patients 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.000 to then other days when I was in the clinic 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.079 and it was more of like a nine to five picture, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.400 but it kind of you know, I would wake up, 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.120 try to get a little bit of work done if 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:45.920 I didn't have to be in the hospital too early, 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.880 go to the hospital, be a part of the team 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.280 that I was assigned to, and just try to help 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.360 make anyone's job just a little bit easier doing tasks 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.720 that I was able to do, to take off you know, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:01.720 the residents and the attending's plates. And then you know, 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:06.440 we'd come home from the hospital whenever we were dismissed, 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:12.600 and then I would usually either lift and do a workout, 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.520 or I would go and practice at the rink in 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.920 New York if it was one of the days that 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:23.199 the NYU men's team was practicing. And then with whatever 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.760 kind of time was left in the day, I would 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.600 study for the like exams we had to take. 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.280 But it's busy as a med student. 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:35.079 But I you know, I've been fortunate that my trainer 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.720 from home was really great about programming my lifting schedule 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.160 and you know, making the most of like the hour 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.160 I had each day to work out and then I 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.080 would have to dedicate a bit more time to practice 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.400 days where I had to travel. 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:47.720 More and stuff. 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.560 But I was really fortunate that the people were in 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:53.840 my life were able to be flexible with me and 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.080 allow me time to get my studying done because that 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.560 was really important to me. But then also find you know, 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.280 make time to get the workouts done and stay in 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:04.160 shape and as. 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.640 Best as I could coming back into the league. 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.920 Yeah, it's just a constant re upping, both physically and 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.040 mentally of everything you can within a certain day to 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.240 keep it as fresh as possible. You know, before the PWHL, 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.280 one of the things that the previous women's hockey leagues 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.040 didn't have was something that seems pretty basic in retrospect, 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:22.240 a team physician. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:24.360 You're young enough that you didn't play. 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.600 In those other leagues, but I'm wondering how your time 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.839 in medical school has sort of informed or understanding of 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.080 what medical standards in women's hockey should look like. 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.640 Yeah, I you know, I think that the PWHL has 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.120 done a fantastic job. The head physician of the league, 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.400 doctor Tina Atkinson, was my team physician going into the 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.640 and throughout the Olympic year, and so The league is 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.080 in great hands with her at the HELM, and I 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.360 think that it's going to be really exciting some of 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.800 the data that's going to come out of I know 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.559 that they're keeping track of all the injuries and everything 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:01.480 that's been going on, and so I think there's going 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.320 to be a lot of good research coming out on 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.440 professional women's hockey players. In the past, I think there 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.719 has been a disproportionate amount of study on men's professional 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:15.240 hockey players and men's professional athletes in general compared to 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.720 professional female athletes. So I think it'll be really exciting 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.800 for the future studies and the amount that we're going 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:23.559 to be able to look at what's been going on 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.440 within women's hockey and then you know, use that to 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.520 put in better policies to keep our bodies healthier. 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:30.439 Yeah. 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.920 I love that you could also sort of either self 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.400 diagnose if you start to feel something, or your teammates 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.320 might come to and be like, Okay, how serious is this? 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.240 Should I go to the trainer or should I just 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.640 play through it like you're like a little doogie house 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.520 around the ice. I keep using that reference for young 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:45.760 people and no one knows what it means. That is 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.400 a very old show about a doctor who is like fifteen. 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.240 Yeah, okay, we got to take a quick break. When 0:13:53.240 --> 0:14:04.840 we come back more with Claire Thompson. Sit tight, I 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:05.560 want to talk hockey. 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.120 You're the Olympic record holder for points by a defender 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.760 in a single tournament. You finish the Beijing Games with 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.800 the highest plus minus rating of anyone in the tournament, 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.000 with the plus twenty three. You've got the twenty twenty 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.760 six Olympics next year. How is twenty twenty six next 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.320 year already? That's insane. How does the existence of the 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:26.040 PWHL and this league that you're getting constant reps in 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.360 change your preparation on your training compared to prior games. 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.760 Yeah, I think it's really changed the landscape a lot 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.200 in previous years. The Canadian and US national teams will 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.360 centralize before so we'll all move to the same place 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.880 for the months leading up and practice and train together 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.280 every day, which I think helps us put in a 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.520 ton of time and getting reps together. Whereas next year 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:49.600 we won't step. 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:50.240 Away from the league. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.160 All the players will play for their clubs and then 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.320 come out and just it'll be a shorter run up 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.240 to the Olympics, so I think that it's going to 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.040 look a little different. We haven't you know, we haven't 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.120 been named to the team or even to the pool yet, 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:06.760 and we don't know what the schedule is going to 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:08.200 look like. But I know that there are a lot 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:12.440 of people working very hard behind the scenes to make 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.880 sure that we're adequately prepared. And then I think, you know, 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.600 for some of the other I mean, for a long time, 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.800 it's been a big Canada US rivalry, but I think 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:26.840 the exposure of some of the other European players playing 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:30.680 in our league, I think the gap is closing very quickly, 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.360 and I think it'll make for a really exciting Olympics 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:39.200 and international play with the upcoming World Championships, as those 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.600 players have the opportunity to be involved with players that 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.000 they previously wouldn't have had the opportunity to practice with 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:48.720 in that year leading up to the Olympics. 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.720 Yeah, speaking of that, you played with Team Canada in 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.840 the rivalry series that recently wrapped up. Has it been 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.360 different playing against the US now that you regularly play 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.800 with and against so many familiar faces in the PWHL. 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.520 Yeah, this was this past week was my first time 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.680 kind of playing against the Americans that I had gotten 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.040 to know so well over this year, and I think 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:11.920 it is a bit different. 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.880 It's harder to be mean to them. I always have 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:15.640 a hard time. 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.840 With that, but you know, I think you tend to 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:21.920 when you practice with people day and day out and 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:24.240 you see the habits and like the little things that 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.000 they do so well that you maybe wouldn't have never 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.760 noticed not seeing that on such a consistent basis. I 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.920 already had a tremendous amount of respect for my opponents, 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.760 but now, you know, playing alongside them and getting to 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.880 know them as people, you know, I just have so 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.320 much more respect for everything that these other women do 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:45.240 on the other teams, and it makes it maybe a 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.680 bit harder to play against them. But you know, it's 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.680 everyone's a competitor, and anytime you get on the ice 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.080 with them, no matter if it's a mini game in practice, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.000 people are competing hard. So it's a lot of fun 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.600 playing against them now that I know them. But yeah, 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.280 it is a little bit different. 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.880 It's like the famous Mark Twain quote, travel is fatal 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.560 to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness. Like when you finally 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.439 meet the people that you think you hate you're like, oh, 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.240 they're just like me. It's like you're like, darn it, 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:12.760 it's so hard to hate the US. 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.400 They're my teammates. Now I love them. 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:17.600 Is there a lot of trash talk with the Frost though, 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.320 because you've got folks like Kendall Quoinschofield against whom you've 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.680 played in the Olympics, in World Championships, have like been 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.600 like out to get and now every day you're in 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.080 the same locker room, like rallying together to get a win. 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:31.880 Yeah. I think we. 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:34.399 I think people do a good job kind of of 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:39.080 separating those like national allegiances when it comes to Frost play. 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:41.880 I know that we're all united in the same goal 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.680 of achieving the Walter Cup this year, and everyone's very 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.520 dedicated towards that. And then in the weeks we take off, 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.320 you know, we're then part of our national teams and 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:54.399 were competitors there. But then as soon as we're back 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:58.280 together again in the hotel, it's like nothing has changed. 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.240 It was cute were texting. There were a lot of 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.840 flight delays coming out and I wasn't traveling from Minnesota. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.120 I had been in California because we had a few 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.119 days off, and they texted me to make sure that 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.320 my flight had made it out okay and that I 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.119 had made it on time, because they knew that a 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:14.800 lot of the players were getting delayed. So I think 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:18.800 they people are still really thoughtful and care deeply about 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.720 each other as individuals, which is really nice to see. 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.600 Even when you're the enemy, even when you're like, what 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.560 if you didn't make the game, that'd be cool too, 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:26.040 it'd be. 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.000 Easier, exactly exactly. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.040 So, this is your first year in the PWTEL. You 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.479 were drafted third overall in June. How is it matched 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.639 or differed from your expectations? 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:36.160 Yeah? 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.600