Tag Archives: Randi Griffin

Olympic Channel airs documentary on historic Korean women’s hockey team

14 Thursday Jun 2018

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Randi Griffin, the  North Carolinian who scored the first goal in Korean Olympic ice hockey history, is featured in an Olympic Channel documentary that chronicles the merging of the North and South women’s hockey squads into one for the 2018 Winter Games.

Korean-American Randi Griffin scored Korea’s first-ever Olympic ice hockey goal.

“We Are One” debuted on the Olympic Channel’s website Wednesday and can be viewed online. The documentary gives a behind-the-scenes look at the unified Korean women’s team and the challenges it faced competing in PyeongChang against more talented, experienced teams.

Unlike the other teams, the Korean squad had to overcome the political pressures of the moment, language barriers (Korean is spoken differently in North and South), and the constant spotlight from international media.

The team played under the blue and white unification flag instead of the flags of North and South Korea. The South Korean roster was supplemented by 12 members of the North Korean women’s national team.

Even before the merger, the South Korean squad had an unusual collection of players. The Korean Ice Hockey Association recruited some players of Korean heritage from the United States and Canada via email, asking if they would be interested in playing in the Olympics.

Griffin, who played hockey at Harvard University, thought the email was a hoax and didn’t respond to it for months.

Lucky for Korea, she eventually responded.  Griffin made history when she scored Korea’s first-ever Olympic goal in February against arch-rival Japan.

It was a weak wrist shot that bounced and trickled five-hole – between the legs – of the Japanese goaltender.

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Griffin called it a “garbage goal.” The puck she scored with is now on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto along with other artifacts from the 2018 Winter Games.

The Korean women’s unified team was bad. It failed to win a game during the Olympic tournament and was outscored 2 to 20. But it played before huge and enthusiastic crowds.

Games had a college basketball-type atmosphere, largely thanks to an army of North Korean cheerleaders that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent to the Winter Games.

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Griffin’s Korea ‘garbage goal’ Olympic puck enters Hockey Hall of Fame

23 Friday Feb 2018

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PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA – Randi Griffin still can’t believe that someone picked up her “garbage.”

That’s what she calls the goal she scored for the unified Korean women’s hockey team against Japan at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The shot was a weak wrister that bounced on the ice and managed to dribble five-hole past the Japanese goaltender.

Korean-American Randi Griffin scored Korea’s first-ever Olympic ice hockey goal.

“It was a pretty crappy shot that took a couple of bounces and happened to go into the net,” the forward said after the game. “I got lucky.”

But Griffin quickly learned that one person’s garbage goal is another person’s history. Her goal was the first-ever Korean tally in Winter Olympics history, and someone had the smarts to quickly retrieve the puck from the ice.

It’s now in Toronto getting prepped to be showcased at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“I still can’t believe my name will appear in the Hockey Hall of Fame because of a garbage goal, but it’s pretty cool,” she told me. “I also still can’t believe I just played hockey in the Olympics, so I guess it’s the perfect crazy unexpected ending to a crazy unexpected experience.”

The puck that forward Randi Griffin shot into the net for Korea’s first-ever Olympic ice hockey goal (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Korea unified women’s Olympic hockey team forward Randi Griffin said her goal against Japan wasn’t much of a shot. The Hockey Hall of Fame disagrees (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Phil Pritchard,  the Hall’s curator, and keeper of the Stanley Cup, told me that the puck will be featured in the shrine’s World of Hockey display then take up permanent residence in the Olympic history display.

“Got the puck here…it is taped details of the goal etc. It’s not signed,” Pritchard told me in an email. “Once I get the artifacts back to the Hockey Hall of Fame, we will preserve, conserve and write up the proper paperwork and get captions made up.”

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Griffin, a North Carolinian and former Harvard University player, is still pinching herself.

“I was honestly really surprised,” she told me.

The daughter of a South Korean mother and white father, Griffin was initially recruited by the Korea Ice Hockey Association in 2014 via an email asking if she’d be interested in joining its Olympic effort.

Griffin, who hadn’t played serious hockey since her senior season at Harvard in 2009-10, thought the email was a hoax and didn’t respond for months.

Once she determined it was real, she flew to South Korea for a mini-camp then joined the country’s national women’s team that would play at the Winter Games in PyeongChang.

Her crazy journey got even crazier when it was announced that 12 players from North Korea’s women’s hockey team would be added to the South Korean roster, creating a unified team.

It was the first time that players from the North and South Korean athletes played together on a single in the Winter Olympics. Initially, there was concern about how the players would bond given the tense political relationship between the two countries.

But the players apparently managed to form some bonds, despite the North Korean skaters sleeping in separate quarters and riding separate buses from the South Korean teammates.

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Griffin, 29, recalled that she spotted some of the North Korean players getting McDonald’s Oreo McFlurries for breakfast in the dining hall at the Olympic Village.

“We all laughed about that and had McFlurries together for breakfast,” Griffin told reporters earlier this week.

The unified team struggled mightily on the ice, getting blown out by Switzerland and Sweden by 8-0 scores. They didn’t win any of its Olympic tournament games and they were outscored by opponents 2 goals to 20.

So when Griffin scored her seeing-eye goal, she knew it was Korea’s first Olympic goal, but she didn’t fully grasp what a big deal it was.

“I knew the goal would mean a lot to Korean supporters who wanted something to cheer for since we were losing games, and it certainly meant a lot to our team, but I didn’t thing anyone outside Korea would care.”

Griffin had designs for the puck – as a keepsake.

“I wanted the puck as a souvenir,” she said. “But obviously now that I know why they took it, I’m happy to let them have it.”

The Korean unified team member expects to have a reunion with the vulcanized rubber biscuit that made Olympic history when she returns to North America.

“I definitely will visit it!” Griffin said.

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Randi Griffin scores Korea’s first-ever Winter Olympics ice hockey goal

14 Wednesday Feb 2018

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GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA Randi Griffin, a North Carolinian, scored the first Korean ice hockey goal in Winter Olympics history Wednesday.

Randi Griffin of Korea’s unified women’s Olympic hockey tea (Photo/Korean Ice Hockey Association).

Griffin, a forward for the Korean women’s unified hockey team scored in the second period, but it wasn’t enough as Japan defeated its Asian arch-rival 4-1 in a preliminary round match at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“I’m definitely not a hero. It was a pretty crappy shot that took a couple of bounces and happened to go into the net,” Griffin told reporters after the game. “I got lucky.”

That said, Griffin added that the goal was a relief for a unified team that lost its first two games to Switzerland and Sweden by identical 8-0 scores.

“We don’t want to leave the Olympics not having scored a goal,”she said. “It feels great to have one under our belt.”

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The daughter of a Korean mother and white father, Griffin was recruited by the Korea Ice Hockey Association shortly after the country was awarded the Winter Games.

Not an international hockey power, South Korea scoured U.S. and Canadian college rosters looking for players with Korean names to help build its roster.

Griffin played for Harvard University from 2006-07 to 2009-10. She tallied 21 goals and 18 assists in 124 games.

Ironically, Korean officials initially didn’t know about Griffin because of her last name. They learned about her from the parent of a Korean-Canadian player they were scouting.

Once they found about Griffin, 29, they immediately sent her an email inviting her to join their Olympic effort. But she thought the email was a scam and didn’t respond for months.

It wasn’t until KIHA officials contacted Griffin’s father, Thomas Griffin, that she responded. Both Griffin and the KIHA association are now glad that she did.

She’s become a key part of a team made of 23 South Korean and 12 North Korean players – the first time athletes from the two countries have played on the same team in the Winter Games.

The merger was done only weeks before the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games in hopes of fostering unification talks between the two Koreas, or at least de-escalate tensions heightened by North Korea Leader Kim Jong-uns pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Griffin, a Duke University anthropology department graduate student, said Wednesday’s game was perhaps the most meaningful to the unified team.

“I would say the games against Japan more than anything else have been something that have brought North and South Koreans together because everyone is saying, ‘We really need to win this game,'” she said.

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Historic Korea-Swiss Olympic hockey game a family affair for Randi Griffin

10 Saturday Feb 2018

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Randi Griffin of Korea’s unified women’s Olympic hockey tea (Photo/Korean Ice Hockey Association).

PYEONGCHANG – Presidents don’t usually pay visits to losing teams.

But there was South Korean President Moon Jae-in meeting with the players and coaches of the Korean unified hockey team at their bench after they got routed 8-0 by Switzerland in their opening game at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Moon, accompanied by Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, chatted and posed for pictures with the team.

Despite the final score, the game was historic – the first time athletes from North and South Korea played on a single team at the Winter Olympics.

The game symbolized the aspirations of many for one Korea – or at least a peaceful coexistence between the North and South.

Thomas Griffin, right, his wife, Elizabeth, and her parents journeyed to Pyeongchang to root for Korean unified women’s team forward Randi Griffin (Photo/Samara Fox).

Randi Griffin bought her family hockey jerseys with her number to wear at the historic game between the Korean unified women’s Olympic hockey team and Switzerland (Photo/Samara Fox).

 

The game was meaningful for the parents of unified team forward Randi Griffin. Thomas and Elizabeth Griffin made the journey from Apex, North Carolina, to watch her play for her mother’s home country.

So did Griffin’s elderly grandparents, who made the trek from Chicago.

Griffin, who played four years at NCAA Division I Harvard University, was recruited by South Korea to play shortly after the country was awarded the 2018 Winter Games.

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South Korean hockey officials sent her an email in 2014 asking if she’d be interested in playing for their Olympic hockey team. She ignored the email for three months, thinking it was a hoax.

Other than their daughter, the Griffins had little to cheer about Saturday night. Swiss forward Alina Muller was a one-woman wrecking crew against the unified squad, scoring four goals.

But that didn’t seem to matter to the partisan crowd of more than 3,000 inside Kwandong Hockey Centre.

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They cheered almost every time the unified team handled or shot the puck.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s hand-picked cheerleaders kept things lively with chants and dances throughout the game.

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Randi Griffin skates into hockey history with unified Korean women’s Olympic hockey team

21 Sunday Jan 2018

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Boston University forward Jordan Greenway, who’ll be the first African-American to play for a U.S. hockey team at the Winter Olympics, isn’t the only American making hockey history.

Randi Griffin of Korea’s unified women’s Olympic hockey tea (Photo/Korean Ice Hockey Association).

Former Harvard University forward Randi Griffin, a North Carolinian of Korean heritage, will also be a part of history as a member of the unified Korean women’s hockey team that will compete at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, Feb. 9-25.

When the team takes to the ice for its first game against Switzerland on Feb. 10, it will be the first time in Olympic history that athletes from North and South Korea will be teammates in one sport.

The International Olympic Committee announced Saturday that the two Korean squads will become one by adding 12 players from the North to the existing 23-player South Korean roster.

South Korean Head Coach Sarah Murray, a dual Canadian-American citizen and daughter of former National Hockey League coach Andy Murray, will guide the unified team.

Under the unification agreement forged by the IOC and the North and South Korea Olympic committees, Murray will dress three North Korean players for each game.

Korea’s Randi Griffin (left) in action in an exhibition game against the Connecticut Whale of the National Women’s Hockey League (Photo/Korea Ice Hockey Association).

Griffin, 29, skated for Harvard from 2006-07 to 2009-10. She tallied 21 goals and 18 assists in 124 games for the Crimson.  She joined the South Korean women’s national team in 2015 after receiving an email invite that she initially thought was a scam.

Read more about Griffin’s journey from Apex, N.C., to Cambridge, Mass., to PyeongChang in a story I wrote for McClatchy Newspapers.

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