Seven Fields’ Ava McNaughton is an Olympic gold medalist. She and Team USA women’s hockey beat Canada on Thursday to take the gold.
Ava currently plays goalie at the University of Wisconsin. She and fellow goalie Gwenyth Phillips both grew up in the area and played hockey for Penguins Elite.
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WPXI talked to McNaughton’s family ahead of the trip to Milan for the games. They told us Ava’s hockey journey started during the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
“I remember exactly where we were in the living room, and she turned to me, she said, ‘Dad, can I play ice hockey?’” Rob McNaughton said.
Fast forward 16 years, and his daughter is a member of Team USA.
“There’s so many hockey parents that, you know, have young kids that are playing hockey, and all of them are going to have this dream, but to actually have all the steps in between that day and this week, it is unbelievable,” Rob McNaughton added.
From the moment Ava first took the ice, the 6-year-old was a goalie at heart. She always jumped at the chance to get in net.
“Ava always raised her hand, but it would go, they would take turns. But any opportunity, if there was someone that decided they didn’t want to turn, or there was an opening, it was always her,” Ava’s mother Gretchen said.
She was even a Penguins junior starter of the game, joining Matt Murray in the net ahead of the National Anthem. The two shared a special conversation.
“They’re kind of talking to each other. It’s just like one of those things where you get two goalies together. They’re like, what are they talking about? So you kind of get the little goalies, like, it’s a goalie world,” Rob McNaughton said.
As Ava grew in her career, she played on both the boys and girls Pens Elite squads. Her U-14 girls’ team won a national championship.
Ava’s parents credit the program with giving Ava the foundation for where she is today.
“I think back to those moments too, and they’ve all led to a USA jersey, which is, you know, the most pride you could ever have,” Rob said.
The moment Ava found out she made this year’s team is one that the whole family will never forget.
“It was amazing. I mean, it was just to see the look on her face, and that smile was, was priceless. I mean, we are so excited. She was so excited. We were screaming,” Gretchen said.
Ava was in disbelief.
“To hear the words, and, you know, to be able to say I was an Olympian for the first time was kind of just didn’t quite roll off the tongue so smoothly as I thought it would,” Ava McNaughton.
Words are hard to find for parents watching their daughter represent Pittsburgh and her country at just 21 years old.
“When you see them skate out, you know, wearing the red, white and blue, wearing USA, there’s just a pride that you have to see your child playing and being a part of that, that team,” Gretchen beamed.
Ava was in the net for part of the third period of one of the games during the Olympics and recorded a win. It’s reported she is the first Pittsburgh-area native to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics since they began in 1924.
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