The Ravens women’s hockey team can add some more Olympic experience to its coaching staff as Sara Seiler returns from her second winter games.
The German-born Seiler represented her country playing for the women’s hockey team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She had previously played in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
With the Games over, Seiler said she has decided to retire from international hockey.
Seiler is the fitness coach for the Ravens as well as a former captain of the team. She played for the Ravens for five seasons.
Shelley Coolidge, head coach of the Ravens, spoke of the experience Seiler brings to the team, both as an Olympian and as a former student.
“Sara’s experience as an elite university student athlete, her focus, her leadership, and her years of experience in knowing how to manage university life with athletics life—an athletics life where she strives to be the best she can—she really helps push the team,” she said.
While this is her second Olympics, Seiler is still very appreciative of the opportunity she had in Sochi.
“I’m very proud and fortunate to be on the team, and very proud to put my country’s jersey on. It is very exciting to play in this tournament,” she said.
She said she noticed a difference in her mindset coming into the Games.
“It’s a little bit different when you’re here the second time. In Torino, I was a bit more overwhelmed than here,” she said.
She said this experience helped her as she had to be more of a leader on the German team the second time around. She said her cool demeanour helped keep the team calm.
The Germans finished the tournament in seventh place. While no European team could match the North American teams, Seiler said she found the tournament was quite close.
“There’s some good women’s hockey too in Europe. It’s quite tight within the European teams, but I think it’s just hard to compete with the number of North American female hockey players,” she said.
The Sochi games gained international infamy in the days before they began, with pictures of unfinished venues and hotels circulating the Internet. However, Seiler said she found everything to be well-prepared and the volunteers helpful.
She also praised the Olympic Park for being well-designed.
“I think they did a great job here in Sochi in that all the stadiums, curling, figure skating, hockey rinks are all extremely close in the Olympic Park so you can actually walk from stadium or rink to rink, it’s very close. That was really nice. I enjoyed that,” she said.
In Turin, Seiler said she had to take a bus just to get to practice. In Sochi, she and her teammates were able to walk to the rink from the Athletes’ Village.
It became common for athletes to use bicycles to get around the Olympic Park, though Seiler said she was only able to enjoy that luxury for one day.
“Unfortunately, the Germans didn’t have enough bikes. They only brought 20 bikes and that’s not enough for all the athletes,” she said.
Seiler said she is excited to share her Olympic stories with the Ravens women’s hockey team, who sent her a video wishing her luck prior to the games starting.
