Long before the Heated Rivalry became a global phenomenon as a book and television series, there were real life versions of this story playing out for Canada and USA's national teams.
Long before Rachel Reid's now famous book, Heated Rivalry, was adapted to be Crave's new global hit, there were multiple real-life heated rivalries on the ice. No, they weren't in men's hockey, where homophobia and heteronormativity have held back inclusion. Instead, hockey's real heated rivalries were happening in women's hockey among some of the most fierce, or heated, rivals on the planet.
In women's hockey, the competition between Canada and the United States quite literally resulted in the Rivalry Series, and annual competition between the nations.
On the ice, those games, and Canada and USA's consistent meetings in the gold medal final at the World Championships and Olympics, have resulted in bad blood among many. For others, however, the frequent match ups resulted in something else...love.
Among the American and Canadian opponents who turned their heated rivalry into lifelong partnerships are Canadian Gillian Apps and American Meghan Duggan, who married in 2018 and now have three children together, and Canadian Caroline Ouellette and American Julie Chu, who have spent two decades together, and the wives now have two children together.
This week, Ouellette and Chu, who faced each other at four Olympic Games and nine World Championships, discussed their own rivalry, and their own story together with podcaster and journalist Sarah Spain.
According to Ouellette, who will return to the Olympics this year as an assistant coach with Team Canada, it was love at first sight when she first met Chu, but she had to find a way to make it work as they found themselves on opposite sides of Olympic centralization in 2006.
"I had to work really hard to make that happen. I had to be patient," Ouellette told Spain on her podcast Good Game with Sarah Spain. "As Julie said, we became really good friends first and we were embarking on the Olympic centralization for the 2006 Olympics. So, from the start of our relationship, we were apart for most of the time. So we've endured a lot of challenges and always came [out] on top."
Ouellette and Chu at the 2014 Olympics © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn ImagesAt the time however, even in the women's hockey world, there weren't as many openly gay athletes as there are today. The pair knew facing off against each other for gold medal after gold medal could be a distraction.
"There weren’t a lot of athletes that were openly gay… and definitely not rivals… we didn’t want our relationship to become distracting to our teammates…and our Olympic journeys as individuals, but also as a team," Chu recalled. "In 2005 was actually when I shared with my family that I was gay. I think it kind of all came into place a little bit more at that point. And by the way, I'm dating Caroline Ouellette, that's on the Canadian team."
With the Olympics approaching yet again, Chu said she will still be cheering for the United States, but also cheering for her wife as she coaches Team Canada. Their children will however, be cheering for Ouellette.
"I grew up in Team USA… it shaped me, like who I am is because of it. So I can’t not root for them," said Chu. "But I can also root for the people that I love… I want Caroline to be successful… And our daughters, they’re gonna be cheering for Canada and they’re gonna be cheering for Caroline."
You can listen to Chu and Ouellette's full conversation with Sarah Spain here: