Social media was recently full of praise for the U.S. Men’s National Junior Ice Hockey Team after they won the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden. But those praises on social media were not just for the team winning the championship, as they were mostly for them proudly singing along to the National Anthem. This was the team’s sixth gold medal in U.S. history, and a video that was posted on X, formerly Twitter, shows the junior ice hockey champions squad celebrating by proudly and loudly singing the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with the biggest smiles on their faces. It is no surprise that this patriotic act rapidly received millions of views on social media. This was such a great moment in sports history!
However, the junior ice hockey champions’ fame was shortly shadowed by multiple social media users as they quickly started contrasting their patriotism with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s lack of patriotism during the World Cup, as when the National Anthem was played, multiple players on the women’s soccer team did not sing or hold their hands over their hearts or shown any kind of patriotism, as it was reported back then.
The young hockey squad’s celebration video was shared by many, and one of them was the American swimmer and conservative activist, Riley Gaines, who shared the video on her X account, taking a shot at Megan Rapinoe and the women’s soccer team, as, along with the video, she wrote a caption that said: “Hey @mPinoe, take notes.” A former member of the U.S. women’s national soccer team also shared the famous video on social media, posting it with a comment: “Amazing moment to see.”
Megyn Kelly, the SiriusXM podcast host, has already been criticizing the U.S. women’s soccer team for their behavior at the World Cup, according to The New York Post. Kelly said that she really does believe in “their version of what a feminist is, what it means to be an empowered woman, at least as an American woman, means you need to hate your country.” Explaining that it means “to go out on the national stage and embarrass yourself and your country by not singing the national anthem,” as quoted on American Military News.
The difference between the two teams was also compared by a social media user claiming that “this is how you celebrate when you represent America… and you are supposed to be the adults? @USWNT.” More praise for the youngsters and negative criticism for the women’s soccer teams came from another X user, who wrote: “I don’t know a single one of those kids or their parents, but I instantly respect all of them for this proud showing. Thank you!”
Someone’s victory in most cases means that someone had to suffer a loss, this time was no different, but besides the Swedish team in the ice hockey final, another team unexpectedly came out as the loser just because of the fact that they did not do something that was expected of them, which is to represent their country from their heart and have that little patriotic feeling in them to sing the National Anthem just like the ice hockey juniors did. WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!
