The first phone call went unanswered. So did the second.
Then, a text: “Hey, it’s Burkie, I need you to pick up the phone.”
It’s the morning of the 2019 NHL All-Star Skills Competition in San Jose, and Patrick Burke is trying to get ahold of Kendall Coyne Schofield. He’s got good news.
Burke’s phone rang almost immediately.
“I hope you got a good night’s sleep last night,” he told Coyne Schofield, “because the NHL would like to invite you to participate in the Fastest Skater Competition.”
The rest is, quite literally, history. That evening, Coyne Schofield became the first woman to ever compete at an NHL All-Star Skills Competition.
By now, you’ve seen the video. (And if you haven’t, what on Earth are you waiting for?)
“I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since that moment,” Coyne Schofield told Sportsnet earlier this month, reflecting on the historic moment that took place on Jan. 25, 2019. “A lot has happened, a lot has changed.”
Her time of 14.346 saw her finish less than a second behind three-time champ Connor McDavid (13.378), and just ahead of Clayton Keller for seventh place overall. But Coyne Schofield’s feat that night was much more than a fast lap around the rink.
It took 14.346 seconds for the Team USA star to thrust the women’s game onto hockey’s biggest stage, and she’s been leading the charge to keep them there ever since.
“I was fortunate to be the one that skated in that moment but there’s so many players and people behind the scenes that made that moment possible,” she said. “You know, you have one chance, you have one moment, and you have to nail it – and I’m so glad that I was able to do so for the women’s hockey community.”
Less than 24 hours before the 2019 All-Star events kicked off, Coyne Schofield had just touched down in San Jose from her home base in Chicago and was headed straight from the airport to SAP Center to participate in a dry run of the skills competition on the eve of the main event. The Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion with Team USA was one of four women on-hand for All-Star Weekend to demonstrate the skills events and she was, fittingly, in a rush to get to the rink.
Burke, who runs the skills competition alongside NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer, had asked the 27-year-old Team USA captain and noted speedster to arrive early enough to test out the fastest-lap event.
“I know these players quite well and one of the things I knew was that Kendall Coyne Schofield is one of the fastest people on the planet. I think her first three steps put a lot of our NHLers to shame,” said Burke, who is quick to credit Susan Cohig, executive vice present of NHL club business affairs and league leader in the NHL’s women’s hockey initiatives, with the idea of bringing in Coyne Schofield, Brianna Decker, Rebecca Johnston and Renata Fast for the event.
“I asked Kendall to make sure she was there a little bit early for when we were testing fastest skater and asked her to hop in because, after years of telling people that Kendall is fast enough to do fastest skater, I had the opportunity the get her timed in a way that no one could argue with,” he explained.
So, fresh off the plane and with almost no warmup, Coyne Schofield stepped up to the starting line and put up a time of 14.226 – a time, Burke told her, that would’ve placed her in the middle of the pack based on last year’s competition results.
Coyne Schofield thought that was cool, but didn’t think anything further of it. Her story of that Thursday evening is a short one:
“The night progressed, and I went to my room and went to sleep,” she said.
Little did she know, a plan was already being set in motion.
An injury to Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnnon left Burke and Mayer one competitor short for the Fastest Skater event.
“I mentioned that Kendall’s time would’ve put her right in the mix, she’s going to be there, she’s a U.S. Olympian, and she’s a great representative of the sport. Why don’t we throw her in the mix?” Burke explained.
Mayer was immediately onboard, and 20 minutes later the two executives approached NHL commissioner Gary Bettman: “We have an idea,” they told him, “and we need your approval.”
With Coyne Schofield’s timed rehearsal at the ready, Burke and Mayer got Bettman’s blessing almost immediately. Burke’s next call was to the NHLPA.
“To their credit as well, the answer was an immediate, ‘Absolutely – this’ll be fun,’” said Burke.
“Really, it was once we had the official time that she was fast enough to do it, the approvals came rolling through pretty quickly – commissioner Bettman, the NHLPA, the other players involved, were all saying that they thought it was a great idea,” Burke explained. “So the next morning, we had formal approvals in place with everybody and once I got the go-ahead, I was the one who got to call Kendall and let her know that she’d been invited to participate.
“So, I called her. Twice.”
As Coyne Schofield strode up to the starting line that night, crowd buzzing and NHLers leaning over the boards, she knew what was at stake. And in 14.346 seconds, she did far more than simply drop a few jaws and write her name into hockey’s history books — she ushered in a new way of looking at women in her sport.
“I think so many people saw that skate and realized that girls and women belong in the sport of ice hockey. Talent sees talent, and the faces of the players on the bench that night said it all: they recognized me as a hockey player and they recognized the other players that were on the ice as hockey players – not as female hockey players – and that’s the one narrative that we’re constantly trying to break with ‘girls hockey’ and ‘women’s hockey.’ Like, we play hockey,” said Coyne Schofield.
To Burke, it was the ultimate clutch performance.
“She’s kicking the night off, she’s the only woman skating in this event, and you know – and whether she admits it or not, she knows – that if she does anything wrong here, all the sexist idiots out there who are saying women don’t belong on this stage are going to jump up. It’s not going to be that, ‘Oh, Kendall Coyne had a bad lap,’ it’s going to be, ‘women don’t belong on this ice,’” said Burke.
“And she didn’t just do okay … In that moment, to rise to the occasion and put up the time she did, with all that pressure, with all that attention, it’s the single most clutch performance that I’ve ever seen from an athlete in my life.”
History was made and barriers were broke. It was such an honor to be the first woman to compete in the @nhl All Star Skills Competition last night. I can’t wait to see what the future holds! #NHLAllStarpic.twitter.com/Sc125oBGCx
In the year since her All-Star moment, Coyne Schofield has continued to work tirelessly to keep women in hockey’s spotlight.
“We need to continue building a platform like we had in that NHL All-Star Weekend. I’ve been skating like that my whole life, and it just took an amazing platform to be able to showcase that,” said Coyne Schofield, who also has a longstanding relationship with her hometown NHL club, the Chicago Blackhawks. That partnership has resulted in the forming of an all-girls developmental program and several other initiatives.
The Team USA captain, whose playing resume also includes an Olympic gold medal and five world championships, has become a leading voice of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association – a group of more than 200 elite women’s hockey players taking a stand for the future of the game and raising awareness about the need for a sustainable, long-term, professional women’s hockey league.
Her powerful voice can also be heard on San Jose Sharks broadcasts — the club contacted her over the summer to bring her onboard as a colour analyst, a role she’s embraced while still making her playing career a priority.
Kendall Coyne Schofield (@KendallCoyne) with the bounce!
“If we can build a platform for women’s hockey that is big enough and people can see us do what we do every day, it won’t be a shock that, you know, I can skate alongside the men,” she said.
That stage is being set again this weekend as 20 of North America’s top women’s hockey players hit the all-star ice for a three-on-three game between Canada and the USA on Friday as part of this year’s All-Star Skills Competition in St. Louis – another initiative headed up by Cohig, and a direct result of Coyne Schofield’s accomplishment one year ago in San Jose.
Introducing the roster for the Elite Women’s 3-on-3 presented by @adidas! American and Canadian All-Stars will face off during the #NHLAllStar Skills competition on Jan. 24.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
