{"id":453058,"date":"2026-02-10T10:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/453058\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:12:15","slug":"westchesters-aerin-frankel-has-waited-for-2026-olympic-moment-to-arrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/453058\/","title":{"rendered":"Westchester’s Aerin Frankel has waited for 2026 Olympic moment to arrive"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2018, Aerin Frankel was at home with her parents in Chappaqua, sitting in front of the television, watching the United States women\u2019s hockey team take on Canada in the Olympic gold medal game in South Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was set to head to Northeastern in a matter of months to start her collegiate hockey career. Yet, as she watched the U.S. women defeat Canada in a shootout<\/a>, she didn\u2019t truly believe that future was possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think when you\u2019re a little kid watching those games you truly believe that you will one day be in those shoes,\u201d Frankel told The Post in a recent phone interview.<\/p>\n

Aerin Frankel makes a save during the women\u2019s preliminary round Group A Ice Hockey match between USA and Czech Republic. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2022, the Westchester native didn\u2019t get the call to go to Beijing despite thinking she had a solid shot, as did her Northeastern coach, Dave Flint.<\/p>\n

At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Frankel\u2019s moment has arrived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the 26-year-old goalie got the call on New Year\u2019s Eve from Katie Million, director of women\u2019s national team programs, she didn\u2019t wait long to celebrate. After learning she would make her Olympic debut this month, she called her parents, Peter and Deborah, right after hanging up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the day of choosing hockey, they\u2019ve been along for the ride,\u201d Frankel said. \u201cSo, a lot of ups and downs obviously in a career, and they\u2019ve been alongside me for all of it. It was not only a special day for me, but also for my family, and I\u2019m excited for them to share that with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ava McNaughton #30 (L) and Aerin Frankel #30 (R) of Team United States talk during a training session. Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was the confirmation that Flint believed Frankel needed. Despite being the national team\u2019s No. 1 goalie for a few years, there is always comfort in a tangible vote of confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she always had it in the back of her head like, \u2018I just got to hear the words that I\u2019m on the team,\u2019 \u201d Flint told The Post. \u201cSo, I think [she was] obviously very excited and happy, but I also think she was a little bit relieved to be like \u2018OK, I did it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Frankel made her debut with the senior U.S. women\u2019s national team during the 2019-20 Rivalry Series against Canada, and has since competed in five IIHF Women\u2019s World Championships (2021-2025), earning two gold and three silver medals. Frankel was the netminder in the most recent Rivalry Series in December, when Team USA completed the first-ever tournament sweep.<\/p>\n

Frankel has cemented her status as the U.S. No. 1 in the PWHL<\/a>, which is in its third season and in existence for its first Olympic cycle this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boston Fleet goaltender Aerin Frankel (31) makes save against the Toronto Sceptres. AP<\/p>\n

The Boston Fleet star is second in the PWHL in goals against average (1.35), and ranks second behind Montreal\u2019s Ann-Ren\u00e9e Desbiens (.954) in save percentage (.946).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frankel and Desbiens are expected to be starting in net when the U.S. and Canada \u2014 the gold medal co-favorites \u2014 have their highly anticipated preliminary-round showdown Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Frankel\u2019s family will be there to watch her fulfill her dream, a player born in what\u2019s not known as a hockey hotbed.<\/p>\n

After Frankel\u2019s parents took their young daughter to the rink for the first time, she continued to pester them about going back. Then it turned into pestering them for hockey lessons after she watched a couple of skaters who put on the gear.<\/p>\n

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

Later, it became about letting Frankel play in net. Eventually, she began playing at Westchester Skating Academy in Elmsford.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goalie plays the whole game, and I think I liked that kind of mentality of being the last line of defense,\u201d Frankel says now. \u201cI\u2019m a super-competitive person, and I think our position really lets us showcase that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar to the 2018 gold medal match that Frankel watched as a teenager \u2014 which ended on Maddie Rooney\u2019s save in the sixth round of the shootout \u2014 big moments often come down to the goalkeeper, and that will only be elevated on the world\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n

Northeastern\u2019s Alina Mueller, left and goalie #33 Aerin Frankel, right celebrate a win in the NCAA Tournament. Boston Globe via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a goalie has an off day, everybody in the building knows it,\u201d Flint said. \u201cBut if the third-line center has an off day, the coaches know it but maybe not a ton of people know it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a special person to want to be a goalie with that magnifying glass on them,\u201d he added. \u201cYou have to be willing to understand that you\u2019re going to be under that microscope in a big spotlight and it can go really well or it could go really wrong. You have to be able to deal with that whatever happens and manage that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilary Knight, a four-time Olympic medalist and the face of U.S. women\u2019s hockey, doesn\u2019t believe that will be an issue for the first-timer Frankel.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s an amazing talent. I think people get to have the pleasure of seeing that when she\u2019s with the Boston Fleet, just throwing every puck aside, essentially,\u201d Knight told The Post. \u201cShe helps us win games, and I think that\u2019s really hard to do in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2018, Aerin Frankel was at home with her parents in Chappaqua, sitting in front of the television,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[12962,5,2602,1767,43,3255,2787,31286,1581],"class_list":{"0":"post-453058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-exclusive","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-olympics","11":"tag-pwhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-team-usa","14":"tag-winter-olympics","15":"tag-winter-olympics-2026","16":"tag-womens-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116045804583979144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}