U.S. women's hockey team makes State of the Union decision after Olympics

The United States women's hockey team won a gold medal in dramatic fashion at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.

The whole group returns home to the U.S. with a whole bunch more fanfare than they may have had as individuals before. Now, they're Olympic gold medalists.

With that comes special invitations, like the one extended by the White House for the whole team to attend President Donald Trump's State of the Union Address.

The women's hockey team won't be in attendance, they announced on Monday.

The spokesperson told NBC News that the team cannot attend "due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments" of the players.

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Additionally, the USA Hockey spokesperson shared, "We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal–winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement...They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment."

The U.S. roster was made up of 16 women competing professionally in the PWHL and seven who are still playing at the NCAA Division I level.

The roster was a mix of young and old, including all-time great Hilary Knight game-winning goal scorer Megan Keller, who both also won gold medals in 2018, along with a handful of other players.

Many first-time Olympians also made major impacts for the United States, which had outscored its opponents 31-1 entering the gold medal game.

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In the Olympic final, Canada struck first and held a 1-0 lead most of the game.

Knight deflected a shot in front of net for a tying goal with just a couple of minutes left in regulation. That set Keller up for her brilliant overtime goal in sudden death to win the gold medal.

The U.S. has now beaten Canada eight consecutive times in all competitions, and now they're coming home as gold medalists.

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