How ice hockey legend Angela Ruggiero battled gender discrimination to make history

The latest episode of the Gamechangers podcast featured ice hockey royalty Angela Ruggiero.

Since her emergence into the sport, she has shattered the glass ceiling. With opportunities against her from a young age, a determined young Ruggiero, who had a point to prove, completely changed the landscape of women’s ice hockey.

Despite retiring more than ten years ago, she remains the USA’s all-time leader, male or female, in international appearances with 256.

Across her glittering career on the ice, Ruggiero competed and medalled at four successive Winter Olympic Games, winning one gold, two silvers and a bronze.

She also competed in ten World Championships, winning four gold and six silver medals, tallying a magnificent 100 percent podium record at the tournament.

After her retirement, Ruggiero was honoured for her astonishing career by becoming just the fourth woman in history to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

While her career is a spectacle to behold, her journey to the very top wasn’t without its setbacks and as an ice hockey prodigy growing up in the 1980s, she experienced the chasm in gender equality when she was just nine years old.

While she was growing up, Ruggiero’s parents wanted to keep her and her two siblings busy and active, which is how her younger brother experienced his first time on the ice at a local rink in Southern California. 

When Ruggiero saw her brother walk through the door in his kit after his first session, she had already discovered an itch she absolutely had to scratch. 

Her father took her down to the rink to inquire about whether she would be able to play on the team.

Ruggiero revealed there were very few hockey players in Southern California, so the ice rink welcomed her with