Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1547508
ONG BEFORE THERE WERE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS, world championships or her golden goal displayed at the end of the rink, Megan Keller put her dream down on paper. She was in first grade. "Hockey is fun because you get to take people out," Keller wrote. " When I grow up, I want to be a hockey player on the girls USA team." That was the big dream, and the journey toward it would unfold over thousands of hours at the rink. At 14, Keller could be found at Suburban Ice Farmington Hills, sometimes with a hockey stick in her hands, other times pulling weeds outside the building. Tom Anastos, owner of Suburban Ice Farmington Hills, one of Keller's former coaches and a longtime family friend, even found a way to make that about hockey. He told the kids they were working on their snapshots when they pulled the weeds, practicing the same quick snapping action they would use to send the puck toward the net. According to Anastos, Keller would spend as much time at the rink as anyone would allow. Even now, every summer Keller returns to host her Gold Medal Hockey Camp, where proceeds from camp g o to support the growth of girls hockey in Michigan through the Suburban Hockey Foundation. On Aug. 20, Suburban Ice Farmington Hills surprised Keller by naming one of its ice sheets the Megan Keller Rink, con- necting her permanently to the place where so much of her hockey journey began. The reveal came in front of Keller's family, members of the HB Detroit Hockey community and three of her former coaches. "I was completely shocked," Keller said. "It's an honor I'll cherish forever. In that moment, I thought about all the time I spent growing up playing there and all of the people I was lucky enough to be surrounded by along the way." For Keller, those people are inseparable from what the game has meant to her. "To me, the best part about hockey and sport has always been the people you get to share the journey with," she said. "None of this is possible without them." The rink bearing her name also gives Keller a connection to the generations that will follow her. "To have my name on a rink—a place where so many kids will come to learn, compete, have fun and fall in love with hockey—is something I never could have imagined when I was growing up," Keller said. "It makes the honor that much more special." PHOTOS BY Getty Images; Alana Dackiw L Megan Keller's goal 4:07 into overtime delivered the U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team its third gold medal all time. Watch: Megan Keller: From dream to golden goal | 2026 #Olympics