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J EREMY SWAYMAN remembers sitting in the bleach- ers at a USA Hockey Player Development Camp in Amherst, New York, as a 16-year-old and hearing his coaches explain how Jonathan Quick had failed to make it to some USA Hockey camps and teams long before he was a two-time Stanley Cup champion goaltender. Swayman gasped. "I couldn't believe it. I was like, no way Johnny Quick got cut from a USA Hockey camp!" Swayman recalled. "But they reminded us that not everyone who makes it in the long run makes it in this exact moment." Fast forward a decade later, and Swayman is a name that Steve Thompson, USA Hockey's manager of player develop- ment – goaltending, brought up to goalies and their parents at USA Hockey's Western Regional High Performance Camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado, earlier this month. Swayman had just posted a 25-save shutout to deliver USA Hockey its first gold medal at the IIHF Men's World Championship in 92 years with a 1-0 victory over Switzerland. And guess what? Swayman once attended that same Western Regional High Performance Camp only to not be selected to the national camp that year. "Sway was an example we shared because he didn't make all these USA Hockey camps when he was these kids age," Thompson explained. "He made it to this 14-year-old camp, but then he got cut to go to national camp. Then he didn't make the (USA Hockey) NTDP team, and he got cut by his first junior team that he tried out for. "That's the message. If your kid continues to believe in themselves, if you continue to believe in them, if your coach- es continue to believe in them, they may pop off one day, but the only thing we know for sure is if they quit because they don't believe that they have a chance then they don't." Swayman never lost focus of his dreams and his goals, instead channeling his disappointment into a burning fire to prove his doubters wrong. He worked his way up from the Alaska All Stars to South Anchorage High School to the Pikes Peak Miners 18U team in Colorado before transitioning to the Sioux Falls Stampede and the University of Maine. In 2020, he made his debut with the Boston Bruins after originally being selected in the fourth round of the 2017 NHL Draft. Swayman signed an eight-year contract with the Bruins this past fall. "It's a marathon, not a sprint, and all of these bumps in the road, adversities that we face as kids, only makes us stronger, and I'm so grateful that I got cut from certain teams, certain camps, because it fueled my fire," Swayman said. "I'd say the big- Glove of Jeremy Swayman and the U.S. Men's National Team Win First World Championship In 92 Years PHOTOS BY Getty Images; Images On Ice 20 // JUNE 2025 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM Jeremy Swayman went 7-0 at the 2025 IIHF World Championship with two shutouts. By JUSTIN FELISKO