Hilary Knight responded to Trump's 'distasteful' joke about U.S. women's hockey

[ASFN Admin]

Shortly after the U.S. men's hockey team captured its first Olympic gold medal since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice," the historic moment couldn't avoid its own political controversy.

Video from the postgame celebration showed FBI director Kash Patel calling Donald Trump from inside the locker room. During the conversation with the team, the U.S. president made a disparaging remark about having to also invite the gold medal-winning women's hockey team to the White House.

The joke, which painted the women's team as less deserving of celebration than the men, was greeted with laughter by the players. On Wednesday, Team USA captain Hilary Knight was asked for her reaction to that joke, and she understandably found it disappointing.

In an appearance on SportsCenter, Knight said via ESPN:

"I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke and unfortunately that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats.

"We're just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men's and women's at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke."

From the men's squad, just backup goaltender Jeremy Swayman and, later, captain Auston Matthews expressed regret for how the team handled the joke.

Much of the team, though, has approached the controversy far differently.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Knight responded to Trump's 'distasteful' joke on U.S. women's hockey

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