BOUND FOR BEIJING: Princeton University women’s hockey alumna Claire Thompson ’20 celebrates after helping Canada defeat the U.S. 3-2 in the title game of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women’s World Championships last August in Calgary, Alberta. This week, defenseman Thompson will be skating for Team Canada as it starts action at the Beijing 2022 Olympics. (Photo by Hockey Canada, provided courtesy of Princeton’s Office of Athletic Communications)
By Justin Feil
Claire Thompson is thankful that the Beijing Olympics won’t be her first international experience.
The 2020 Princeton University graduate was named a member of Team Canada for the Olympics. Thompson, who plays defense, was also a part of Team Canada along with fellow Princeton player Sarah Fillier when it won the World Championships in August.
“It was definitely helpful to gain confidence playing at a high pressure international competition like the World Championships,” said Thompson, a 5’8 native of Toronto, Ontario.
“During the Olympics, I’ll definitely look back on things I learned and how to handle the pressure of playing and representing Canada at such a high level. I’m definitely really grateful that I had the World Championships experience going into these Olympics.”
Thompson ranked 11th overall at Worlds in plus-minus at plus-7. It was a strong start to her international career and helped reassure her that she belonged at that level.
“That was my first real senior level experience,” said Thompson. “I took away a lot of confidence from that tournament in that I’m able to play at the senior level. That was the first time I had played with this group and this team so I took away a lot of friendships and a lot of support from the girls on my team, which was nice.”
Team Canada is scheduled to open the Olympics pool play on February 2 against Switzerland. The team closes pool play with games February 4 against Finland, February 6 against the Russian Olympic Committee, and February 7 against the United States. Bracket play continues until the gold medal game February 16.
“In addition to the U.S. and Canada, I think Finland is a really strong contender,” said Thompson.
“They came in second in the World Championships in 2019. They almost won it but a goal was disallowed. Between the three of us, I really do believe we have everything on our team to win. We’re just focused on ourselves going into these Olympics. Giving the success we’ve had this year, some teams are starting to focus on what they need to do to beat us. We’re just focusing on what we need to do play our best game.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting in her senior season at Princeton, it cut out a chance at an NCAA tournament run for Thompson and the Tigers after they won the ECAC Hockey Championship for the first time. The pandemic made for an unusual build-up to Worlds, which were canceled in 2020.
Thompson committed to a lot of individual training that enabled her to be selected to Canada’s centralization camp and then ultimately picked for the national team.
“Something that I think really helped me last year was I spent the full calendar year training with Dan Noble in Toronto,” said Thompson.
“I did off-ice work with him, and then I did on-ice work with a skills coach named Brett MacLean. I think my off-ice training, becoming faster and stronger, really helped be able to play physically with the women on the national team. I think I improved a lot of my on-ice skills and technical work with Brett. He was really helpful and he’s been instrumental in me being able to play at this level.”
It’s been a steady progression for Thompson, who converted to defense while at Princeton and ended up scoring 87 points in her career on 31 goals and 56 assists. In addition to training individually, she got a little taste of a higher level of hockey than college hockey when she skated for Team Sonnet in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association. They played a showcase event in Calgary last May, then she focused on centralization.
“Last year, just training every day with the national team girls and the pro team players definitely helped my game so much,” said Thompson. “Just becoming accustomed to the speed and physicality and the skill level and just learning how to adapt my game and what I have to be able to perform and excel at that level.”
Thompson started to establish her role on the Canadian team while in centralization and showed her abilities at Worlds. Her first Olympics will help her further solidify her place on the team.
“Coming into Worlds, the D’ core, there are only two previous Olympians,” said Thompson.
“The rest are rookies. Going into the first Worlds, I wasn’t sure what my role was. As the season went on, I’ve been playing a lot with Erin Ambrose. She’s been my D partner pretty much this whole time. I’m really excited to continue playing with her, or honestly any of the other defense I’d be more than happy to play with. We’ve built a really special connection as a D core and I’m excited to contribute in any way I can at these Olympics.”
Thompson had to respond to the challenge of playing against the best players in the world. Having tasted the international level for the first time at Worlds raised her play.
“The international level is definitely a step or two above the college level,” said Thompson.
“The international teams predominately, mainly the U.S. and Canadian teams, are made up of what were the top NCAA players. The national teams have the opportunity to basically pick and choose the best NCAA players so the game is a lot faster. The average player is a much faster, more physical, more skilled. Another difference is that many of these players have been playing at this level and training at a professional level for a long time, so they’re faster and stronger than college players, whose bodies are still developing, are able to be.”
Thompson has lived with a college player, Fillier, who will return to Princeton next year for her final two seasons, in a Calgary apartment while preparing to take on the world. It has helped to have each other during the last two years of training and centralization.
“We kind of started this journey together back in 2020,” said Thompson.
“We were both named to the Worlds team that year. Then we found out the World Championships had been canceled due to COVID. Training together through my first year out of college and the 2021 season that Sarah took off, we trained together every single day. And now in Calgary we’ve lived together this past year. It’s been really special to share all this time and these experiences with one of my best friends.”
The Canadian national team has not made major changes to its roster since the World Championships. They were able to add a couple pieces to their gold-medal roster, and they feel that will make a difference in Beijing.
“We’re a much better team than we were at Worlds, just given the amount of time that we’ve spent with each other and working on the different aspects of the game that we thought we could improve,” said Thompson.
“The team is just more refined and we’ve built a lot team chemistry over the past several months. Girls are now used to playing on lines together so I think the team is more refined and probably a better version than we were at Worlds.”
The Canadians have been trying to treat their training the same as they would for any event. After winning the World Championships, they feel primed to claim gold for the first time since 2014. Canada won silver in 2018. The victory at the Worlds put them back at the top, and Thompson is hoping that the months of training since then have further cemented them as favorites.
“We just come to the rink every single day and try to be the best we can,” said Thompson. “We know if we’re doing our best, I don’t think there’s anyone in the world that can beat us.”