It’s no surprise Abby Roque found hockey. That’s a natural by-product of growing up with a dad who coached college hockey in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. “It’s all I wanted to do,” Roque tells SELF. But part of what sets Roque apart is the combination of force and finesse that made her one of the top collegiate women’s hockey players in the country. During her four years playing for the University of Wisconsin Badgers, she scored 170 points in 155 games, making her the ninth all-time scorer since the team’s inception in 1999. After Roque graduated in May 2020, USA Hockey named her the Bob Allen Women’s Player of the Year, which has honored many of the sport’s best athletes in the past. Given that Roque is a cornerstone for the future of women’s hockey, it almost feels too coincidental that her last name is pronounced “rock.”
The world will be watching when Roque makes her Olympic debut in Beijing this month alongside greats like gold medalist Hilary Knight. Roque is one of eight newcomers to Team USA—the 15 other members all have prior Olympic experience. But Roque, who turned 24 in September, will be the only Indigenous woman representing the U.S. on Olympic ice. In fact, she’ll be the first.
“Somebody told me that the other day, and I was blown away,” Roque says. “Minority players need representation. If you look at a team and just see more of the same white men playing the game, you’re not going to get girls involved, you’re not going to get young minority players involved. I’m hoping in 10 to 15 years, we’ll see a big shift because of the visibility we’re trying to create right now. I want to be a piece of that and say, ‘I’m here.’”
Roque is also adding her voice to a chorus speaking out about the need to pay women hockey players the same as men.
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In April 2021, the Premier Hockey Federation (a professional league then known as the National Women’s Hockey League) announced it was doubling the maximum amount teams could pay their players from $150,000 to $300,000 in the 2021–2022 season. According to some sources, that averages out to about $15,000 per player, though reports differ on the exact division of funds. This number will rise further in the 2022–2023 season, increasing from a $300,000 cap to a $750,000 cap to be shared among the team. For comparison, a starting 2021–2022 season contract for men in the National Hockey League is $750,000 per player.
“We do all the work that an NHL hockey player does,” Roque says. “We just want to be paid a good livable wage and be treated like true professionals.”
That’s not to say there hasn’t been some progress. In March 2017 the U.S. women’s national hockey team announced it wouldn’t be playing in the upcoming World Championships to protest the players’ lower pay and lesser benefits compared to the men’s team. (Especially considering that the women’s team tends to perform better than the men’s—it has won a medal at each Games since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998.) Nearly two weeks later, USA Hockey, the governing body of competitive ice hockey at Olympic and Paralympic levels, reached a historic pay deal with the women’s national team players. The deal established a living wage of about $71,000 per player—a huge jump from the $1,000 monthly stipend players were previously paid only in the six months leading up to an Olympics. The deal, which lasted four years, also outlined additional pay opportunities, such as performance bonuses, and granted the same per diem and benefits as the men’s team. Now that the four-year deal has expired, the team has agreed with USA Hockey on a one-year contract; the shorter length will make it easier to change course as necessary because of the pandemic. And while there are debates about how effective the deal ultimately was, it laid groundwork for Roque to be one of the first women’s hockey players to get a living wage while representing the U.S. as an Olympian.
Source: SELF
