“It’s called the highest civilian honor in our country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
President Donald Trump has announced that he will be awarding Connor Hellebuyck, the US Olympic hockey goaltender, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He made the announcement in the State of the Union address on Tuesday.
“I will soon be presenting Connor with our highest civilian honor—which has been given to many athletes over the years. But when I say many, not too many, like 12—it’s called the highest civilian honor in our country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Leading up to the award announcement, Trump brought the Team USA hockey players out to into the seats occupied by the press corps in Congress. “Our country is winning again. In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it,” he said, then alluded to the win from the hockey players over the weekend at the Olympics.
“I’ve never seen A goaltender play as well as goalie Connor Hellebuyck,” Trump said. “Give it 46 shots on goal, and I asked him, ‘The one shot, the one where you put your stick in the back and it hit the neck of your stick and bounced off. You practiced that? Or was that little lucky?’ he refused to answer that question,” the president joked.
Leading up to the State of the Union address, and after their win on Sunday, Trump called the hockey team to congratulate them on the win and invited them to the speech. During the call, Trump also made mention of the work from Hellebuyck.
“And by the way, your goalie played not bad,” Trump joked during the call. “I have seen hockey goalies have slightly worse games than that. Unbelievable, and you were all unbelievable. And that team was pretty good, you played.”
He then invited them to the State of the Union. “We’re giving the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. I could send a military plane or something. If you would like to — it’s the coolest night. It’s the biggest speech.” Before the president could finish, one player responded: “We’re in.”