If you heard about the Korean women’s Olympic hockey team your first thought was probably the Jamaican bobsledding team or that British ski jumping fool, and for that you can be forgiven. But if you read this book you will have a different opinion, they are not a joke, at least for me anyway, you see my high school started a hockey team when I was a freshman and we suffered similar lopsided defeats at the hand of more established programs, but eventually a decade later were a power and won two state championships and finished runner up twice.
It is relevant here because hockey has a long history in canoe country, and two of the main characters in the book are Minnesotans, one of the players (born in Korea, adopted by a MN family) and the head coach (Canadian, but raised in MN, played for SSM in HS and UMD in college). Two sisters, one wins gold, the other last place (but arguably the richer experience). And no doubt you recall at the last minute North Koreans were added to the team. As inspiring as the miracle team, despite only scoring one goal in the Olympics. I expect this will eventually be made into a movie, hopefully more like the second miracle movie rather than the first.