From the 603 to Sochi: Bellamy, JVR grace N.H.’s Olympic roster
From the 603 to Sochi: Bellamy, JVR grace N.H.’s Olympic roster
By John Doyle
jdoyle@fosters.com
Thursday, February 6, 2014
DOVER — There will be plenty of names familiar to fans of the University of New Hampshire athletics program when the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, kick off later this week.
The United States women’s hockey team will have its defense anchored by former UNH all-american Kacey Bellamy, and she will be coached by former Wildcat standout Katey Stone, who played for UNH in the 1980s.
Bellamy and Stone are solely focused on winning the first gold medal for the U.S. in the sport since 1998. Bellamy is one of 11 players who won the silver with the U.S. team at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.
“Obviously, losing in Vancouver was really tough,” said Bellamy. “That’s been our motivation every single day, is that gold medal.”
As a senior at UNH in 2009, she was fourth in the nation among defenseman in scoring with six goals and 22 assists. She helped lead the Wildcats to the Frozen Four in 2006 and 2008.
Stone was a freshman on the UNH women’s lacrosse team in 1985 that won the school’s only NCAA national championship. She has been the head coach at Harvard for 19 seasons and led the Crimson to three straight NCAA championship games in the 2000s.
The U.S. men’s hockey team features a familiar face in James van Riemsdyk, who played at UNH for two seasons from 2007-09. “Something that I’ve always wanted to do is be able to play at the Olympics,” van Riemsdyk told The Canadian Press on Jan. 1, the day he was named to the U.S. team. “It’s a huge thrill for me and I’m very excited.”
Van Riemsyk is no stranger to international competition. He won gold with the U.S. U18 team at the IIHF championships in 2006 and silver the following year. Also in 2007, he was part of the bronze-medal winning team at the World Junior Championships. He is the older brother of current UNH defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk.
Former UNH skier Leanne Smith will be attending her second Olympics after finishing 18th in the Super-G at Vancouver in 2010. The 26-year-old Smith was the 2010 U.S. downhill champ and was also 21st in the women’s combined that year.
Bellamy, Stone, van Riemsdyk and Smith are just a few of at least 24 U.S. athletes with ties to New Hampshire.
Joining Smith on the alpine ski team is Bode Miller, one of the most recognizable names in U.S. Olympic history and a dominating presence on the men’s scene since 1998. Miller will compete in his fifth Olympics, where he’ll try to add another medal to the five he’s already captured. He won gold, silver and bronze in 2010 in Vancouver and two silvers in 2002 in Salt Lake City. A native of Easton, the 36-year-old Miller is expected to ski in the downhill, Super-G, giant slalom and super combined.
Kris Freeman is on the cross-country team in his fourth games. Freeman is a 16-time national champion in distances from 10 kilometers to 50 kilometers. The 33-year-old Thornton resident was added to the team in late January after being dropped from the squad last spring. He trained and competed without funding to make this year’s team. Freeman’s best individual finish at an Olympics was 14th place in the 10/10 kilometer pursuit in 2002. He also was part of the U.S. team that took fifth place that year in the 4-by-10 kilometer relay.
The rest of the Olympians known to have New Hampshire ties are Lebanon’s Nick Alexander (ski jumping), Center Conway’s Sean Doherty (biathlon), Andover’s Nick Fairall (ski jumping), Hanover’s Hannah Kearney (freestyle skiing), Hilary Knight (hockey) and Julia Krass (slopestyle skiing), Laconia’s Chas Guldemond (slopestyle snowboarding) and Lyme’s Mikaela Shiffrin (alpine skiing).
Athletes from Dartmouth College include Gillian Apps (hockey), Sophie Caldwell (nordic skiing), David Chodounsky (alpine skiing), Hannah Dreissigacker (biathlon), Susan Dunklee (biathlon), Nolan Kasper (alpine skiing), Ida Sargent (nordic skiing), Sara Studebaker (biathlon) and Andrew Weibrecht (alpine skiing). Alpine skier Julia Ford matriculated to the Holderness School.
Material from the Portsmouth Herald, New Hampshire Public Radio and The Associated Press was used in this report.
