[O]lympic gold medal-winning hockey player Amanda Pelkey came home Friday, riding through Montpelier with a parade of young athletes and admirers.
With her team’s championship victory over Canada, Pelkey made history in Vermont’s capital city: “As far as we can tell looking at the records, Amanda is the first person from Montpelier ever to get an Olympic gold medal,” City Manager Bill Fraser told a crowd gathered at City Hall on Friday.
Anne Watson, who was elected on Tuesday as the city’s new mayor, said she remembered teaching Pelkey in her physics class at Montpelier High School. “We are so proud to have you as part of our Montpelier family,” the mayor said, before giving Pelkey the Olympic flag that hung outside City Hall last month.
Pelkey scored her medal in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in the second week of the Winter Olympic Games. Since then, she and her teammates have cris-crossed the U.S. on a two-week-long media tour.
“It’s probably the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Pelkey told the crowd.
The 24-year-old athlete and University of Vermont alum arrived on the Greyhound bus from Boston this morning after her flight to Vermont was cancelled. “It’s been awesome to be home,” she said.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better team and a better community to share this with.”
