GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- Greg and Robin Brandt are proud hockey parents. They have not one, but two daughters playing in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics here this month.
Sisters Hannah and Marissa Brandt (Instagram: @marissacbrandt)
The twist: their two daughters, Marissa and Hannah, actually play for two different countries.
Marissa Brandt, 25, is a minute-eating defensewoman for the joint Korean team. Born in South Korea, she was adopted by the Brandts as an infant, and after regaining her South Korean citizenship, she is now playing under her birthname, Park Yoon-jung.
Hannah, 24, is a top line forward for the United States who has won three national titles with the University of Minnesota.
The Brandts are taking it all in, watching their daughters play every day since the start of the women‘s tournament. Korea has played games last Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, while the U.S. has had games on Sunday and Tuesday.
The Brandt familiy, plus Marissa’s husband, Brett Ylonen, were in the stands to watch the U.S. women‘s third game on Thursday at Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung.
They were still beaming from Marissa’s performance in Wednesday‘s game. Korea scored its historic first Olympic goal in a
4-1 loss to Japan. And it was Marissa Brandt who got the lone assist on the goal by Randi Heesoo Griffin in the second period.
“We’re very proud. We were so excited and there was so much electricity in the air at the game last night,” Robin told Yonhap News Agency before Hannah and her team took on Canada. “Everybody was so excited. We didn‘t even know she actually had the assist until after. Everyone was jumping up and down.”
Greg Brandt said it was “a very emotional night” for the family.
“Finally to see the culmination of all the hard work and actually getting a goal, that was really cool,” he said.
Ylonen said he particularly enjoyed the raucous atmosphere in the arena, with more than 4,000 partisan fans cheering on the team despite the loss.
“At the end of the game, it was 4-1 and fans were cheering just as loud as when it was 0-0,” he said. “It was a very exciting environment.”
Marissa, who leads all Koreans players in ice time with 23:37 per game, said she “blacked out” when the puck went in and felt like she was “dreaming.”
She dumped the puck in off the glass from the center ice, and with the puck still rolling, Griffin didn’t appear to get all of the puck when she took the shot. But it went in off the right pad of the Japanese goalie Akane Konishi and trickled across the goal line.
“It was just exciting we can get a goal and score for fans and everybody supporting us. It was really for them,” she said. “We‘re happy to make people proud. A little lucky, but a goal is a goal. We’ll take it.”
While the U.S. has qualified for the semifinals and is expected to battle Canada for gold medal here, Korea, the combined team of 23 South Koreans and 12 North Koreans, has long been relegated to the classification round.
Korea lost its first two games by the identical scores of 8-0, first to Switzerland and then to Sweden, but Robin Brandt said she still saw “so much positivity” after those games.
“Of course, we wanted (the Korean team) to do well. And it would have been great to have closer games,” she said. “But I don‘t think we felt that bad because we were just so excited.”
Greg said he hates to lose but he also understood Korea was overmatched against those European opponents. He gave kudos to Marissa and her teammates for battling through the end.
Ylonen said he could see Korea was improving with each game, and the team’s hard work paid off in the historic goal, with his wife having her hand.
“I told her I was incredibly proud of her,” he said. “I look forward to future games of the team.”
Korea and Japan could square off again in the seventh place match, should both lose their first classification match on Sunday.
It's something Marissa is eager to see happen.
“Hopefully, we’ll get another shot at Japan down the road here. It‘ll be another revenge game for us,” she said. “We’ll take the momentum from the goal and move forward.” (Yonhap)
