Cammi Granato

Catherine Michelle " Cammi " Granato ( born March 25, 1971 in Downers Grove, Illinois) is a former American ice hockey player of Italian descent who has won as captain of the U.S. national team numerous medals at World Championships and Olympic Winter Games. She is, along with Angela James, the first woman who was taken in November 2010 in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Her brother Tony was also a hockey player.

2.1 College
2.2 International

3.1 National Competitions
3.2 International Competitions

Career

Beginnings in Downers Grove

Cammi Granato was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, about 30 km west of Chicago. She has four brothers and one sister, all of her brothers played in their childhood Hockey. Cammi, the youngest sibling of the family, also opted for this sport. Her brothers they first tried to persuade her to be goalkeeper, but Cammi wanted - just as their brothers - score goals themselves. At the age of five years, her parents Cammi reported to the local ice hockey club, having previously taken skating lessons. In the following years it developed into one of the best young talent in the region, where she was active exclusively in boys' teams up to the age of 16. Her dream was back then, " one day playing for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League ."

In the last two years of their high school years Granato stopped temporarily on the sport of ice hockey, since physical contact was allowed from that date for male hockey player, she felt as a target of such attacks and feared following injuries from it. During those two years she played instead, basketball, football, handball, tennis and baseball.

College Hockey

1989 got Granato from Providence College, which operate as one of the few universities in the country woman Hockey, a scholarship. She studied in the following social sciences and played for the ice hockey team of the College, Providence Friars, in the ECAC, a College Football NCAA. They quickly established itself in this new environment and was honored in their first year of college as ECAC Rookie of the Year. As Assistenzkapitänin the Friars led her team to the 1992 and 1993 titles. In addition, she was awarded between 1991 and 1993 three times in a row as ECAC Player of the Year. In a total of 93 ECAC games for Providence, they scored 135 goals and 110 assists. She finished her studies in 1993 with a degree in social sciences.

After her graduation, she was not allowed to play in the NCAA and therefore decided in 1994 for a move to Canada to lay at Concordia University's Master in Sports Management. In parallel, she played for the ice hockey team of the University, the Concordia Stingers in the Quebec Conference ( QSSF ) of the CIS. The Stingers won three times in a row the championship of the Conference and collected in a total of 125 games 179 goals and 151 assists. In addition, she was awarded in 1996 as the most valuable player as well as appointed in 1996 and 1997 All-Star team in the Conference.

In June 1997, she received from Mike Milbury, the former manager of the New York Islanders, an invitation for the training camp of the Islanders, but ultimately rejected Granato from.

NWHL

Granato played between 2001 and 2003 for the Vancouver Griffins in the National Women's Hockey League ( NWHL ) and led the team in the second game as captain on the ice year. In the 2004/05 season and at the beginning of the season 2005/ 06 she was active for the British Columbia Breakers (BC Breakers ) in the NWHL before they took part in the Olympic preparations with the national team.

Internationally

Cammi Granato belonged to the first generation of American women who represented her country at international ice hockey tournaments. Throughout her career, she completed a total of nine World Cups, two Olympic Winter Games, two Pacific Championships and numerous other tournaments for national teams. They won one Olympic gold and silver medals and 8 silver medals and one gold medal at the world championships.

At the 1998 Winter Olympics, the first Olympic hockey tournament of the women, she led Team USA as captain on the ice and won the gold medal. As the tournament progresses Granato scored the first goal for the U.S. women's team at the Olympic Games.

Shortly before the 2006 Winter Olympics Granato was removed from the U.S. squad and then finished her national career.

After the End of career

After completing her studies, Granato was temporarily commentator NHL games of the Los Angeles Kings. After the end of their active career, she followed up on this activity and worked as a sports journalist for the NHL broadcasts on NBC. At the Olympic Winter Games 2010, she commented on the game of ice hockey tournament of Women for NBC.

She is also founder of Golden Dreams for Children Foundation, which cares for disadvantaged children, annually leads a training camp for girls in Chicago and is co-owner by Bela Hockey, a company that makes hockey articles for girls and women.

In 2007 she was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for her contributions to the sport of ice hockey in the United States. In May 2008 she was admitted along with Geraldine Heaney and Angela James as the first women in the IIHF Hall of Fame. A few months later Granato was also included as the first woman in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

On November 8, 2010 Granato was finally taken together with Angela James as the first women in the Hockey Hall of Fame.