Gretchen A. Ulion (born May 4, 1972) is an American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player. She won 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 ...

. At Dartmouth College, she was and is still today the

Dartmouth Big Green women's ice hockey The Dartmouth Big Green women's ice hockey program represents Dartmouth College. In 2001, Dartmouth participated in the inaugural NCAA Championship tournament. Since then, they have appeared in the "Frozen Four", the semifinals of the NCAA hockey ...

program's all-time leading scorer with 189 goals and 312 points, served as the captain of the Dartmouth Big Green during the 1993–94 season, and was twice the Ivy League Player of the Year. In the gold medal game at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Ulion scored the first goal of the game. It was also the first ever goal scored in an Olympic women's ice hockey gold medal game. Ulion was featured on the

Wheaties Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originally introduced as Washburn's Gold Meda ...

box in 1998. Along with the rest of the 1998 gold medal-winning team, Ulion was admitted to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009. She also received a Gold Key from the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance on April 29, 2018. In addition to serving as a U18 instructor and motivational speaker for USA Hockey, Ulion is the head of the girls' hockey program at the Taft School, where she also teaches math and works in the admissions office.

Personal life

In 1990, Ulion graduated from

The Loomis Chaffee School The Loomis Chaffee School (; LC or Loomis) is a selective independent, coeducational, college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, including postgraduate students, located in Windsor, Connecticut, seven miles north ...

, where she played hockey under long-time coach Chuck Vernon. Ulion married Steven Silverman on July 11, 1998, and is now known as Gretchen Silverman.

References

External links

Taft School profileGotta Love CT Hockey video interviewLoomis Chaffee interview with Ulion
in 2010 1972 births American women's ice hockey forwards Dartmouth Big Green women's ice hockey players Ice hockey players from Connecticut Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Living people Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in ice hockey People from Marlborough, Connecticut Sportspeople from Hartford County, Connecticut Loomis Chaffee School alumni {{US-icehockey-bio-stub