Angela Ruggiero
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Angela Ruggiero | |
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| Born | January 3, 1980 San Fernando Valley, California, United States |
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| Occupation | Olympic athlete, author |
| Website AngelaRuggiero.com |
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Women's ice hockey | |||
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| Gold | 1998 Nagano | Team | |
| Silver | 2002 Salt Lake City | Team | |
| Bronze | 2006 Turin | Team | |
Angela Marie Ruggiero (born January 3, 1980 in Panorama City, California) is an American ice hockey defenseman. She is also the author of a memoir about her hockey experiences and a former contestant on the NBC reality show The Apprentice.
While still a high school senior at Choate Rosemary Hall, Ruggiero played on the gold medal-winning 1998 United States Olympic Hockey Team in Nagano, Japan. She was also a member of the silver medal-winning 2002 team in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In her senior year at Harvard University, Ruggiero won the 2004 Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in U.S. women's collegiate hockey. She graduated from Harvard cum laude in 2004 with a degree in government.
Ruggiero made several U.S. professional hockey "firsts" on January 28, 2005, when she played for the Tulsa Oilers in a Central Hockey League game against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. She was the first woman to actively play in a regular season professional hockey game in the United States, at a position other than goalie. (Erin Whitten skated ceremoniously for 18 seconds with the Flint Generals in 1996, and Manon Rheaume tended goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a pre-season game in 1992.) In addition, since her brother Bill Ruggiero also played for the Oilers, they were the first brother-sister combination to play professionally at the same time.
Ruggiero was also credited with the game-winning goal in the shoot-out that won the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships for the United States against the Canadian national women's hockey team, winning the first gold medal ever for the United States at the world championship.
While representing the United States in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Ruggiero was widely quoted for comments she made to the Sports Illustrated website regarding the Canadian team's behavior during the preliminary round of the women's hockey tournament:
"I'm upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation... There was no need for that. They're trying to pad their stats... Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons -- personal, short-term." [1]
Her remarks were criticized by people ranging from members of Team Canada to sports commentators, although others agreed with her statements.
Ruggiero is the author of a memoir, Breaking the Ice: My Journey to Olympic Hockey, the Ivy League & Beyond, published by Drummond Publishing Group in 2005. The book details her hockey career, including her experiences with misconceptions about women's hockey and the challenges of being a female player in a male-dominated sport.
In May 2006, Ruggiero was selected from a field of twelve Olympians to be a candidate on the sixth season of NBC's business-themed reality game show The Apprentice. The season debuted in January 2007. During Ruggiero's time on the show, many references were made to her Olympic and hockey experience. She was eliminated on the season's tenth episode, airing on March 25, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Angela's U.S. Olympic Team bio ... with notes, quotes, photos
- C'mon, Canada!:Team USA's Ruggiero upset Canadians running it up SI.com, February 13, 2006
- Ruggiero selected for 'The Apprentice', USA Hockey/NBC press release
- NBC Bio
- Yahoo! Bio
- Zoodango Profile
- MySpace Website
- Angela's Apprentice Audition Video
- Breaking the Ice at Amazon
- Angela Ruggiero at the Internet Movie Database
- Angela Ruggiero at TV.com
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