BEIJING — Brianna Decker’s raw screams, the cries of an athlete who knows her body well enough to instantly realize something had gone terribly wrong at a terrible time, suddenly filled the mostly empty, echoing spaces of Wukesong Sports Centre on Thursday.
Decker, a two-time Olympic medalist and alternate captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team, had become tangled with Finland defender Ronja Savolainen near the Americans’ net in the first period of their Olympic opener. Both women fell to the ice in a heap, with Decker’s left leg badly twisted. Decker’s loud cries conveyed her profound pain and sudden fear, sending a shiver down the spines of all who heard them. Medical personnel quickly came to her and she was carried off on a stretcher.
“It was awful, there’s no other way to put it,” U.S. captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said. “She’s one of the toughest, strongest players in the world, so to hear her react like that obviously was devastating for our group.”
