Top of the world

Victoria Alarcon
SportS & HealtH editor
Few can say they have travelled across the world to play against teams like Russia, Slovakia and Great Britain in hopes of winning that gold medal title for their country of women’s hockey.
York Lions captain Courtney Unruh was given that chance, though, and returned to defend Canada’s gold medal title in the Winter Universiade games this year in Turkey, winning against Finland in the final match, 4-1.
Catching up with the captain of the team, here’s what she had to say about her experience.
How were the days leading up to the gold medal match?
“They were good. We played our toughest competition in the first couple of games, kind of the weaker competition on the last ones, and we got to work on a lot of things towards the last few games. We worked as a team, and it was great throughout the week.”

What’d you think of your opponent, Finland, and the final match?
“It wasn’t an overly easy one to win. From the first game we faced them, we won in a shootout, and so we knew their weaknesses and our strengths and we only built throughout the week, so we got better. In the gold medal game it worked out really well.”

How was it working with former York player Kelsey Webster and the other players on the team?
“We played together for a couple of years here [at York] so we knew how each other worked, so it was good. There were some returning players from China. One of them was my line mate in China, and a couple of the girls I knew so it was easy to work with them.”

What was your favourite part?
“Winning – that was the best part of everything. But other than that, knowing the other girls. We got to see other competition, we got to see other sports and other girls compete. Overall it was a great experience, just getting out and seeing what other people do.”

What would you take away from this whole experience?
“You know so many more people. You won the gold for your country. You met so many new people and places. So many little girls who are going to dream to be in that position one day and just knowing what you did for women’s hockey over there.”