Good as gold: Emily Clark’s family revels in Olympic title

Years of being a rink rat helped Emily Clark get to the top of an Olympic podium.

The 26-year-old Saskatoon product helped Canada win the gold medal in women’s hockey at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday, when the Canadians defeated the United States 3-2 in the final.

“After she was born, I think she was in the rink at two weeks old — maybe three — because her four brothers were playing hockey,” Clark’s dad, Del, told The Green Zone on Thursday.

“I worked for Canlan Sports (at the) Jemini and Agriplace (arenas). We were there every day all the time because somebody was playing and she just loved being on the ice. When I started working for Canlan, she would come on the ice when we could or when there was a vacant spot.

“She worked the tournaments for fundraising to help out her brothers. She ran the timeclock at four or five years old. She knew her way around the rink better than anybody.”

As a youngster, Clark put a poster on her wall saying she one day would play for Canada’s national team. Since that came to fruition in 2014, her time with the squad has included what Del called some “ups and downs.”

One of the biggest downs occurred in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018. The Americans beat the Canadians 3-2 in a shootout to win Olympic gold.

“It was a heckuva game, but it was obviously disappointing the way things turned out,” Del recalled. “But they got some redemption (Thursday).

“This was a big win. Especially winning worlds in late August and now the Olympics, I think we’ve got the Americans right where we need them.”

The Canadians were dominant during the 2022 tournament.

They went 4-0 in the round-robin and outscored their opponents 33-5. Then, in the playoffs, they had a 24-5 goal differential on their way to three straight victories and the gold.

While Team Canada didn’t have many nervous moments in the early stages of the tournament, Emily did. She was forced to sit out Canada’s game against the Russian Olympic Committee after an inconclusive COVID-19 test.

“We weren’t sure what was going on because of course you don’t know,” Del said. “Then finally they showed some things on TV when (the Canadians) came back out for the second warmup. Then she looked all over the bench and went off and I went ‘Uh-oh.’ But it worked out.”

Clark got word that night that her test was negative after all and she played in Canada’s 4-2 victory over the Americans in the preliminary round. She stayed in the lineup for the rest of the tournament.

On Thursday, Canada built up a 3-0 lead before the U.S. started chipping away.

A shorthanded goal late in the second period cut the lead to two, and then a power-play tally with 13 seconds left in the third pulled the Americans to within one.

“It was pretty tense in the house,” Del said. “Everybody was over — all of Emily’s brothers and sister and sister-in-law and sister-in-law-to-be. It was fun, it was a relief and it was exciting when the buzzer went.”

Del said he and his wife sat side by side during the game and were ecstatic when the game ended. Then they got another thrill when they saw Clark receive her gold medal.

“It was a lot of work — a lot of work by Emily but just as much work for my wife Tracy and myself and her siblings,” Del said, “because they’ve supported her right from Day 1.”