Canadian Olympian Meaghan Mikkelson says her mom played a key role in her hockey career

Before the excitement hit her, Betsy Mikkelson says the first thing she felt was a huge sense of relief. Meaghan, her daughter and a defenceman for the Canadian women’s hockey team, had just won Olympic gold on home ice, something very few get the opportunity to achieve.

“In the moment I kind of stayed pretty steady – I cried about it after – because I’m one of those people who reacts emotionally later,” Betsy said of the moment in Vancouver on a phone interview earlier this week.

Meaghan also recalls the moment the buzzer sounded. She remembers looking up into the stands and waving to her family, celebrating in the CTV studio with her teammates and eventually – three hours after the game itself had actually ended – walking into a hospitality area with a Canadian flag draped around her neck and getting to share the moment with her mom for the first time.

“I’m a bit of a softie when it comes to that stuff,” Meaghan said over the phone. “You can imagine the emotions that run through you, but when I saw my mom and I hugged her – she was sobbing at that point as well – that’s something I’ll never forget.”

The sport is something that has helped bring the mother and daughter duo closer together. Growing up in Baltimore, Meaghan’s mom wasn’t surrounded by hockey nor did she know much of anything about it. And while her husband Bill played parts of three seasons in the NHL, it wasn’t until Meaghan started playing that her mom really began learning about the game.

And she became an important figure for Meaghan to be able to turn to, especially in the early stages of her playing career.

In St. Albert, Alta., where the Mikkelsons raised their three children, there were no all-girls teams or leagues, so Meaghan was forced to play with the boys for the majority of her youth career and she admits that brought on a set of unique challenges.

“I’d go to the rink and I was surrounded by the boys,” Meaghan said. “We’d go on the road and it seemed kind of typical that the hockey dad [would] be a little bit more involved in the regular scene whether it be at practices or games. Those boys would go home and talk to their dads and yes I would go home and talk to my dad too – he’d give me tips and pointers – but when it came to anything emotional or challenges that I ran into, I think for a young girl growing up, having another female to talk to about all that is extremely important and that was always my mom.”

There were times, especially during tryout season, that Meaghan recalls as being especially tough because of the intense and competitive environment that comes along with playing rep hockey in any city and as the only girl at most of the tryouts every year she felt like she was under the microscope a lot.

“I think it was the most around peewee or bantam where it was the most challenging,” she said. "Sometimes I would have my own dressing room and my mom would just come in there and hang out with me because I’d be in there by myself.

“The minor hockey association that I played in was great and they were very accepting but it’s inevitable that you run into people that are not always as accepting as others of having a girl play on an all-boys team and there were some people that just didn’t agree with it. So I think that is what made that time difficult, but my mom was always there . . . She was just always telling me to be tough and ‘don’t let those boys push you around’ that type of encouragement."

So when Meaghan, now 28 years old and married, was approached by Sport Chek to be a part of their first ever Mother's Day ad campaign, she jumped at the opportunity almost immediately. She saw the commercial as a chance to recognize, even it was only in a small way, everything her mom has done for her over the years.

It also gave Meaghan the chance to spend some time with her mom, which doesn’t happen as much as she would like it to, especially in the year leading up to an Olympics. Meaghan isn’t going to be spending Mother's Day with Betsy unfortunately, but they took a couple of days earlier this week to celebrate together.

"We went out for lunch and did some shopping and I gave her a gift,” Meaghan said. “[We’ve] just been enjoying each others company and I think that’s the biggest thing is being able to spend time with one another."