Long Beach's Charlie McAvoy shares Olympic gold medal moment with family
Charlie McAvoy of the U.S. celebrates following the men's gold medal game against Canada on Feb. 22, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Credit: Getty Images/Elsa
Long Beach’s Charlie McAvoy will forever remember the on-ice thrill of helping Team USA win the gold medal. But just as meaningful, if not more, was the postgame embrace with his father and having family and friends from Long Island come to Milan, Italy, to watch him in the Olympics.
“I can’t believe some of the things that have happened in my life and where I’m at and how I got here,” McAvoy told the media in Boston on Thursday after the defenseman rejoined the Bruins for that night’s game against the Blue Jackets.
“I had embraced my dad and I got some good pictures [of that]. I jumped up and pulled myself up to grab him and he’s crying. That’s the guy that had me on the ice when I was 2 in that little rink in Long Beach, New York.”
McAvoy said his wife, Kiley, packed letters for him to take to Italy from all his family members, including his father-in-law, Team USA and Rangers coach Mike Sullivan. McAvoy said he read all of them before the Olympic tournament began and again before the gold-medal game, a 2-1 overtime win over Team Canada on Sunday.
“None of this, I feel like, would mean really anything if I didn’t have my family to share it with,” McAvoy said. “It does take a village.”
McAvoy also expressed regret for how some Team USA members reacted in the postgame dressing room when President Donald Trump called offering his congratulations and extending an invitation to come to Washington for Tuesday’s State of the Union address, which McAvoy attended.
Trump said he was going to have to invite the women’s ice hockey team as well since they also won a gold medal, also beating Canada in overtime, and joked he would “probably be impeached’’ if he didn’t. Video of that moment showed several Team USA members laughing.
The women’s team declined the invitation, citing prior scheduling issues involving the players’ returns to their respective colleges and professional teams. Trump said during his State of the Union address that the women's team would visit the White House "soon."
“Just certainly sorry for how we responded to it in that moment,” McAvoy said. “Things that just happened really quick there. If you know the men’s team and if you know the relationships that we have and the amount of time that we’ve spent with the women’s team and how we’ve supported them, it’s certainly not reflective of how we feel and what they’ve done with their accomplishments.
“I made friends for life with them. We shared this together. I’m pretty confident they know how I feel about them and what they’ve been able to accomplish.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
