Miracle of Their Own

Like the group of players who stunned the world by upsetting the mighty Soviet Union in the iconic "Miracle Game" at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980, few gave the Team USA women much of a chance to beat the Canadians in the inaugural women''s tournament in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. After all, Canada''s women had dominated their game for decades, winning every major international tournament until then. But when the Gold Medal game had ended, Team USA was standing atop of the podium after a shocking upset that ignited what many consider to be the greatest rivalry in all of sports.Suddenly, just as young boys were inspired by Mike Eruzione and his American teammates to take up the sport of ice hockey and change the game in the United States, little girls could now look up to captain Cammi Granato and her teammates and be similarly inspired. Now they too could play and compete, skate and shout, "She shoots. . . she scores!"Their story unfolds in dramatic, riveting detail in the pages of this book. It reveals how coach Ben Smith assembled this team, making some critical and controversial roster cuts just days before leaving for Japan. It describes how a shocking comeback in a preliminary round game gave the American women the confidence they desperately needed with a kind of momentum they had never experienced heading into a championship showdown with their archrivals. Through exhaustive interviews with dozens of the participants, it explains how that golden moment catapulted the women on both sides of that rivalry to even greater heights as they continue to crash through glass ceilings, inspiring girls and young women in myriad ways that transcend the game itself.