In a game where winning is decided by a slim margin, a gold medal in the Olympics can be determined by a single choice taken many years ago: the decision to cut a player and force him to start anew. In the case of Taylor Heise, who was not selected among the final players to the 2022 U.S. Olympic team, it became the tipping point and the point where the pass to count the most in Milan was made.
That is why Heise came to the 2026 Winter Games not as the same player who was watching the games at home in Beijing. During the gold medal match, she assisted on the overtime goal of Megan Keller, and such a play is only easy to look after it succeeds. Heise said, (Getting cut) was the best thing that happened to me. It has taken me years to discover it, but (the Olympics) is something that I have wanted a long time and wanted bad. And it is sort of just challenged me to discover those things in me that I have to work on.
The way she explained the past four years was not more of a highlight reel but a checklist. I simply feel that during these four years, I have had a lot of work mentally, physically, emotionally and spirituality. That I have only grown bigger, Heise added. And that is something that you can just not do without being cut or calculating that you have to change something.
Such growth manifested itself in the areas of national-team careers where they are often determined: monotonous tournaments, new duties, and the treadmill of demonstrating dependability. Ever since 2022, she has participated in all of the matches of the world championship in women. She was also instrumental in establishing the match-winner of the overtime in the U.S. win at the 2025 world title and she was the American Rivalry Series leader, with nine points, in the last Rivalry Series where the Americans defeated Canada by a margin of 24-7 across four games.
Heise also explained that there was a change in her perception about the national-team ladder. She said, of the pre-2022 build, I just want to get there. “I did not perceive it as a step-by-step. I saw it as one big leap.” According to her, the U.S. program constructs chemistry not only through systems and practices, but through the connective tissue of dinners, locker-room jokes and time spent together.
The years of comeback had digressions that could easily be termed as excuses. She completed her senior year at Minnesota and was a winner of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, but she hadreamed of having a back surgery. She then overcame a COVID delay at the 2022 world championships and proceeded to produce, recalling that she was “playing so free that tournament.” The following autumn, in September 2023, she was selected first in the PWHL Draft, followed by winning the playoffs in the scoring race, and winning Finals MVP when Minnesota became the first champions of the league.
The game itself in Milan had the customary tension of U.S.-Canada, with old and new on either side taking every shift and every faceoff as though it would shift the night. Subsequently, the emotional burden was embraced by Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin: “people said we are too old.” And Canadian forward Laura Stacey summed up the silver and the gold: “Regrettably we lost by inches.”
An attitude of Heise remained process-oriented and not revenge. It is alright not to form a team since the following time the same motivation will come back to you to continue, she said. When things continue going in your way in life, sometimes it is difficult to do better, you are content with life and just being mediocre.
