The United States men’s and women’s hockey teams at the 2026 Winter Olympics brought home gold medals after respective overtime victories Team Canada in their gold medal games. — The United States men’s and women’s hockey teams at the 2026 Winter Olympics brought home gold medals after respective overtime victories against Team Canada in their gold medal games.

After the men’s victory on Sunday, that group received a phone call from President Donald Trump, who after inviting them to Tuesday’s State of the Union, made a quip that has received quite a bit of attention.

Trump’s joke about the women’s team garnered a collective laugh from the men.

“We have medals for you guys, but I must tell you, we have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump said.

It was a laugh heard around the world, as social media ignited with advocates for women and supporters of women’s sports expressing why they felt a sting when the men’s team chuckled, rather than push back, at Trump’s comment.

That includes South Florida hockey mom Sara Wiles, who took to social media to voice her displeasure with what she saw from the men’s team.

“I am a woman, so I have faced those types of remarks all of my life, as have most women, and I am raising a son to be better and not laugh at women,” Wiles told Local 10’s Christina Vazquez. “When I am watching this video, and I am watching the people my son looks up to the most, and I am watching them laugh at other women…(the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team) are the best of the best, and somehow that is still not enough, that is somehow still worthy of laughter.”

Wiles expressed frustration, saying she does so much to teach her son “to be better and be respectful to everyone, including women, and so it felt very wrong to me to not call that out when I am doing so much work inside of my home to make sure I am raising a kind son.”

Team USA forward Jack Hughes, who scored the golden goal to defeat Canada, said some people like to make something out of nothing, regarding the locker room laughter, according to ESPN.

However, Wiles said the instinct to dismiss a cutdown directed at women is part of the issue.

“Because we have experienced that on so many levels for the entirety of our lives,” she said. “We have been laughed at for just existing and attempting to do things in the world. I think women have stayed silent and we have let those laughs and those chuckles roll off our backs for so long and nothing has changed, so we are at a point here in our culture that we are done being quiet and we are going to call it out when we see it.

“All we are asking is for those men (to say), ‘You know what, you are right. We are sorry, and we will do better,’ and we have not even seen that, and that seems so simple.”

Wiles said she has also been monitoring the friction between the comments she has been receiving on social media from men as opposed to women.

“The women are reaching out and saying, ‘Thank you so much. Thank you for putting words to feelings that I’ve had for all of my life,’” she said. “Whereas the majority of the comments from men are either dismissive or they are defensive. They’re saying, ‘It was just a laugh; stop being so sensitive; stop being so emotional.’ And my response to them is that laughter in locker rooms and locker room talk has real-world repercussions for women and we know that if we just look at the stats based on sexual assault and assault on women in general, especially at the hands of men.”

The U.S. Women’s Hockey Team politely turned down a White House invitation to attend the State of the Union.

In a statement, the team cited logistics. Unlike the men’s team, the women did not have a charter flight from Italy to the U.S., with some of the women not returning from their commercial flights until Monday evening.

The late invitation to the SOTU, which came several days after their gold medal win, made getting to Washington, D.C. difficult.

“What we know to be true is that women receive less funding, less support,” said Wiles. “So it makes sense because this would be a whole lot harder for them and more expensive for them to make it work. I don’t know if you noticed, but the president offered to fly the entire men’s team out. I don’t know if that was offered to the women.”

Local 10 News reached out to the White House several times on Tuesday to ask if the president also personally called the women’s team to congratulate them and if he also extended an offer to cover travel expenses to the State of the Union via taxpayer-funded public money, as he did the men’s team.

As of the time of this story’s publication, there has been no response.

“What I do know is we heard nothing about an invitation for the women until the men won gold, and I think that is pretty telling about the respect level people have at our highest level of government and leadership for women’s sports and women in general,” said Wiles.

She also pushed back on some on social media, claiming women are getting “political.”

“We did not make it political. The director of the FBI showed up and was chugging beers like a frat bro and banging his hands on a table. The president of the United States chose to call the men after the women had already won gold. We did not make this political. It became political because of our leaders,” said Wiles.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale United, South Florida’s professional women’s soccer team, said the following:

“We won’t comment specifically on the dynamics of another organization but what we will say is this: women athletes deserve support, visibility, and respect at every level. Our focus has always been creating an environment where our athletes are celebrated, elevated, and taken seriously. We know young athletes of all genders look up to our team as positive and inspirational role models, and we do not take that responsibility lightly. Moments like this reinforce why visibility in women’s sports matters and we’re proud to be on the forefront of that here in South Florida.”

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