Why one of America’s greatest hockey stars was kept off the Olympic podium

PARIS — The week was almost over, the Olympics were almost over, when Erin Matson walked into the lobby of a botanical boutique hotel. A gilded garden, drawn from a Parisian dream. This place is how the other side lives, and the name was fitting. La Fantaisie.

Nike booked a block of rooms during the Olympics. The guests were part of an annual Athlete Think Tank, a consortium that interviews influential women in sports. The list included Dawn Staley, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird and the list goes on. They sat in for group discussions, Master Class presentations by Serena Williams and Stacey Abrams and product sessions, where they gave feedback on Nike products that are coming out soon and others that are still years away.

The youngest member of the group was USC basketball player Juju Watkins. The next youngest was Matson — a 24-year-old entering her second season as head coach of the University of North Carolina field hockey team.

Matson arrived in the lobby dressed in an oversized designer Nike tracksuit. The driver waiting outside was scheduled to leave for the airport in 45 minutes. Jess Sims, the Peloton instructor turned ESPN personality, walked by and asked if she and Matson were sharing a ride to Charles de Gaulle.

This isn’t the typical life of an American college hockey coach. Represented by Wasserman Group, the powerful sports and entertainment agency that represents Katie Ledecky, Diana Taurasi, Nelly Korda and others, Matson proved her reach this summer. She walked the red carpet at the ESPYs. She was a featured speaker at the espnW Summit in New York City.

At a time when the growing interest in women’s sports is heavily driven by name recognition and star power, Matson has found a place in those reserved spaces. Once the nation’s best high school hockey player and a member of the U.S. national team at 17, she played five seasons (2018-22) at North Carolina and won every accolade imaginable. She became the NCAA’s third-leading scorer of all time, was on four national championship teams and was named national player of the year three times.

But this year, the 24-year-old name in the sport wasn’t in Paris, but across town to play alongside Serena Williams as the U.S. national team won 1-3-1.

The backstory is layered. After legendary coach Karen Shelton retired in December 2022, UNC named Matson, then 22, head coach of the most successful, best-funded college hockey program in the country. Many celebrated the move as audacious—a succession that echoed Shelton’s rise 42 years earlier. It was a different era, but Shelton had once gone from three-time national player of the year at West Chester to head coach at a New Jersey high school to taking over UNC at age 23. Others were less than thrilled with the move. Some saw Matson’s hire as ridiculous, a borderline insult to women’s sports, and criticized the school for what they saw as a closed-minded job search.

Matson and the Tar Heels responded by winning the school’s 11th national championship in her first season as head coach.

And all that before my 25th birthday.

Thus the status.

So Paris.

Matson filled a journal with notes and quotes. She talked to Staley about coach-captain relationships. She listened to Abrams talk about staying true to your values. She sometimes felt out of place. “Why am I here?” Not because of a lack of qualifications, but because of the ultra-niche position of hockey in the women’s game. It’s an issue that predates Matson.

Over lunch with Rapinoe one day, Matson was struck by a realization — that Rapinoe, an American soccer icon, had become that icon by being transcendent on the field and outspoken off it. She raised the profile of women’s soccer as a player, a freedom she was afforded more on the field than when she worked on the sidelines as a CEO.

In Paris, that field was the Yves du Manoir Stadium. The U.S. national team, a group that includes two current Matson players, one former player, and five players she will coach this fall, was outscored by eight goals and eliminated in the group stage. They again failed to win a medal, continuing a streak that dates back to 1984.

Of course the instinct is to make it logical, but here nothing is that simple and it is only the sport that suffers.

This is the shortest possible version of the long, complicated story of Matson and USA Field Hockey. When she was hired at North Carolina, Matson knew that a full-time job with a six-figure salary would mean taking a step back from the U.S. national team. In her version of events, she wanted a few years to settle into the job, then hoped to continue her playing career, splitting her time between coaching and playing. She told UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham about her plans to pursue the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. He was all for it.

Then two things happened. The Tar Heels won the national title in Matson’s first season. And the U.S. national team, which had been projected as a long shot at reaching the Paris Olympics, successfully qualified for the Games.

North Carolina coach Erin Matson is lifted by her team after it defeated Northwestern for the 2023 national title at Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill. (Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Matson reversed her initial decision and made a late attempt to secure a spot on the U.S. team. She applied for a tryout and played in the indoor Pan-Am Games to score some international players. While much of the already established U.S. national team had sacrificed time and energy, living and training at a facility in Charlotte, NC, the official roster had not yet been finalized. Several students who were playing their 2023 seasons would be invited to try out. Matson would not. USA Field Hockey released a statement saying that Matson was “not eligible under the mandatory terms of the selection criteria.” USA Field Hockey Executive Director Simon Hoskins told The Athletics It was his decision to reject the request for a trial period, saying, “It’s an organizational policy, so it comes down to me.”

The resulting backlash went both ways. Matson’s supporters accused her of jealousy within the USA Field Hockey ranks. Matson’s opponents criticized her for seeking special treatment and for leaving the national team in the first place. The bitterness and strife mounted. Earlier this summer, a series of interviews with members of the 1984 bronze medal-winning team led to a variety of responses—both that USA Field Hockey was failing to capitalize on a new star and that there is a reason for the roster policy. Meanwhile, other current college coaches refused to speak publicly on the subject.

Anyone operating from a certain perspective can see a valid case either way. Matson chose to prioritize her coaching career over her playing career. At the same time, regardless of protocols or personal feelings, was it really in the best interest of the sport for her not to run for the Olympics?

Hockey, played equally by men and women in other parts of the world, has long struggled to catch on in the United States. While other women’s sports have enjoyed periods of momentum, hockey has never gone mainstream. It’s regional. It requires specific (read: expensive) terrain. It doesn’t draw the hordes of kids that youth sports do. So while other women’s sports have seen measurable growth, such as increased total college scholarships, hockey has stagnated. A lack of success at the national level can be seen as both a root cause and a byproduct. Since ’84, the United States hasn’t finished better than fifth in any Olympics.

Hoskins points to a lack of government funding.

“It’s just not fair,” he said. “It’s a subsidized industry that we’re competing in. It’s a real struggle for the organization.”

Money is one thing, but popularity is another, and hockey has never ventured into the public consciousness because the public knows so little about it. Sports need stars; in this case, the sport’s biggest American star wasn’t on the biggest stage in Paris. Well, she was, except she was watching track and field and swimming meets and posting pictures for her 70,000 Instagram followers as the U.S. team scored a total of five goals in five games.

A day full of gymnastics and waiting for 🐐 to do her thing

Not pictured: Product sessions with Nike about the future 👀👀 photo.twitter.com/7Bksq9PYAK

— Erin Matson (@erinmatsonn) August 6, 2024

Neither the results nor the optics are correct.

While the ugliness of the 2024 process is still fresh in her mind, Matson said she fully intends to pursue a spot on the 2028 Olympic team, even if it requires more than two years of playing for the national team — “One hundred percent,” she said — but as an organization, USA Field Hockey needs to examine its shortcomings at the international level.

“I think there’s got to be changes (in the system),” Matson said. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I don’t know how many times we have to fail before people say that, but come on. So I think it’s going to happen. But there’s no question that I’d like to do that. I know I can help.”

Given the tense situation in the spring, some may wonder what can still be fixed.

“You don’t have to like me,” Matson said. “I’m not saying you have to be my friend. I don’t need any more friends. I have support and I’m grateful. But why can’t we come to an agreement? Do we want to win or have the best chance to win? I don’t just mean here at the Olympics. Our sport has to win.

“I’m not someone who lives in regrets, or is attached to them, or holds grudges. I truly believe that if you want to grow or move forward, you can’t be attached to those kinds of things.”

In the meantime, Matson will continue coaching. In what felt like a nod to her detractors, she made a notable hire this summer. Romea Riccardo, who won five NCAA titles at UNC and graduated in December, was named a full-time assistant coach on the staff. Matson says Riccardo was to her what she was to Shelton. The two were once freshmen together.

“The argument that the schools that recruit against us have is, ‘They’re a young staff; they have no idea what they’re doing,'” Matson said. “And you know, I always joke — don’t people know that we like to have a target on our backs these days? If you just stay quiet and don’t tell me what you think, I’m probably less motivated. But if you keep telling me, oh, you’re too young, oh, you can’t do this and that — stop it, because you’re only hurting yourself.”

North Carolina’s 2024 season begins next week against the Tar Heels, once again the favorite to win the national title. Matson says she knows the perceptions. “That, oh, Erin’s in Paris, gone crazy. Oh, Erin’s in L.A. at the ESPY Awards,” she said. “But I don’t think people understand that I know how lucky I am, and I take these opportunities and ask myself, How can we be better, how can the sport be bigger?”

Maybe it is possible. Or maybe it is fantasy.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletics; Photos: Andrew Katsampes / ISI Photos, Jamie Schwaberow / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)