Quotes from Hilary Knight

The real answers aren't in textbooks; they can be found through experiences.

Everything I do is for a gold medal for this country.

It's a great culture to be a part of: there are hockey players all over the world. It has taken me to an education, getting an education at Wisconsin. I've been able to travel the world.

When I graduated from the University of Wisconsin, I was highly encouraged to move to Boston to train as a hopeful for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. I remember packing up my car, traveling out here to live with other teammates and share an apartment.

I went to a lot of Chicago Wolves games when I was growing up... They would come out of the tunnel, the pyramid would be there, and the fire would come out of the pyramid. I thought it was the coolest thing.

Being surrounded by great women and amazing role models and good teammates allowed me to unfold and evolve into the person that I am today.

It was somewhere in Ohio - Cedar Point or something like that - one of those thrill rides. A few cars up, someone's sunglasses had fallen off, and we were on one of those corkscrew parts, and I saw sunglasses and just instinctively grabbed them right out of the air. I was like, 'Oh, my reaction time is really good. This is going well.'

How do we make hockey more affordable? How do we get it into more households? How do we keep it part of the conversation? Those are things that will help us not only increase registration numbers from a grassroots level but also deepen the player pool from the senior national team and the elite level.

I know there are sort of misnomers that women's hockey isn't as physical or fast as the guys, but women's hockey is very dynamic and tactful in its own ways. It's just as respectable of a sport as any male counterpart.

I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to play hockey, especially when there weren't equal opportunities as there are now. But at times, it was challenging.

For lunch, I usually have a burrito or burrito-style bowl with rice, beans, a little cheese, avocado, and tomato.

I absolutely love music. Music is so powerful and can set the tone and change your mood.

Whenever you step on the ice, you need to be a student of the game and try to hone your craft. You're never going to play a perfect match, but you're always chasing that perfect game.

People don't know how fantastic women's ice hockey is. People don't know how fantastic hockey is in general.

When I was 5, I'm like,' I'm doing this,' whether there's women's ice hockey, men's ice hockey, whatever it was in my future.

'Playing like a girl' was used as a demeaning term instead of an empowering one. I am proud to be a girl and rocking the ice.

In my first two world championship experiences, I barely saw the ice at all.

You have to lose to win a silver medal, so that's always the tough thing to wrap your head around.

The songs that are on my playlist find themselves there because I can identify with the lyrics, or they have some magical transformative power in the beat.

My two earliest memories - earning little buttons on our skates when we learned how to skate from one end of the ice to the other and when I first lifted the puck.

I wear yoga pants and get to work out all the time - it's my job. I feel a little bit different when I go into what I call 'the real world.' It's cool to be able to train as a full-time job, and it's something that I love and will continue to try to make work for the next however-many years.

My dad was traveling a lot, but when he would come home and cook, he'd cook pizza.

When our world is telling girls and women who they should be or what they should look like, it is critical that we empower those girls and young women to be confident with who they are.

Women in general, we tend to shrink ourselves and not have as much confidence as we should in presenting ourselves and our body types. It's OK to be fit and healthy and comfortable within your body, whatever frame you have.