Tara Lynn Mounsey (born March 12, 1978

United States Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

. Accessed November 18, 2007.) is an American ice hockey defenseman who played for the United States Women's Olympic Hockey Team, winning a gold medal at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and a silver medal at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. Mounsey played high school hockey at Concord High School in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

. Playing on the "boys" team, she became the first female player to win the New Hampshire (Class L) Player of the Year award, after leading Concord to the 1996 state championship. Mounsey went on to play for

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

where she was a two-sports athlete, ice-hockey and field hockey. In ice hockey, she immediately made an impact on the ice, earning

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

and ECAC Rookie of the Year honors. During the 1997–1998 season, Tara Mounsey took a hiatus from college hockey to focus on the Winter Olympics. At the Games, she collected two goals and four assists, which was tied for tops among defenders for

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

. For her outstanding performance, she was also selected to the All-World Team. She and her teammates won the first ever Olympic gold medal in Women ice hockey defeating

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

3–1. They are credited for growing the sport's popularity for future generations with enrollment rising from 28,000 girls playing at the time to 80,000 playing today. Outside of the ice, Mounsey also found success on the turf. Playing just two seasons of

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, she is Brown's field hockey team's all-time leader in career points and goals and ranks eighth in assists. "She also holds the record for most points in a season, goals in a season, goals in a game and points in a game. Mounsey left Brown as the 13th all-time leading scorer and was honored as Brown’s co-best defensive player in 2000." Today Mounsey, a graduate of

with a graduate degree from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

, is a Nurse practitioner at

New England Baptist Hospital New England Baptist Hospital (NEBH) is a 141-bed adult medical-surgical hospital in Boston, Massachusetts specializing in orthopedic care and complex orthopedic procedures. NEBH is an international leader in the treatment of all forms of musculosk ...

, Massachusetts.

Awards and honors

*1996 NHIAA Player of the year *Ivy rookie of the year (1996) *ECAC rookie of the year (1996) *First team All-Ivy league (1996, 1998, 2000) *Regional All-American (2000) *First Team All-American (2000) *1998 Olympic gold medalist *Olympic ice hockey All World team (1998, 2002) *2002 Olympic silver medalist *2002 Olympic ice hockey most assists (W) *2002 Olympic ice hockey most points by a defenseman (W) *2009 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame *2011 Brown Hall of Fame (ice hockey and field hockey) *2018 NHIAA Hall of Fame *2019 U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame *Patty Kazmaier Award Finalist, 1999, 2000

References

1978 births American women's ice hockey defensemen Connell School of Nursing alumni Brown Bears women's ice hockey players Ice hockey people from New Hampshire Living people Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for the United States in ice hockey Sportspeople from Concord, New Hampshire Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics {{US-icehockey-bio-stub