When Kyle Zych first got the news that he had made his first Paralympic Games sled hockey team, he was almost at a loss for words.
“When I first initially found out, I was almost speechless. I’ve been working for this for as long as I’ve been playing, so 10 years now, and to finally make it has been a dream come true,” Zych said.
The 25-year-old South Hadley native will compete with Team USA when the 2022 Paralympic Games run March 4-14 in Beijing, China. NBC will broadcast the Paralympics, which follow the 2022 Olympic Games in the same locations.
Zych is no stranger to playing at the highest level of the game – he’s already suited up for Team USA in two Para Ice Hockey World Championships, where he won gold in both 2019 and 2021. He made his official national team debut at the Para Hockey Cup in 2018, where he made quite the statement with four points (3G, 1A) in five games. But despite those experiences, getting the call for the Paralympic team was an entirely new feeling.
“At first I didn’t realize how different it would feel – I mean, I have the two world championships, but this is not even close to the feeling of going into those two tournaments and we’re not even in Beijing yet,” Zych said.
Zych, who was born with Spina Bifida, has always had a love for sports and been an athlete. He first found sled hockey in 2011, and quickly discovered he had a real talent for the game. He’s been pursuing the national team with a single-minded focus ever since he found out such an avenue existed.
He first made the national development squad in the 2014-15 season, right after the Sochi Games. He had some friends go to the Paralympic Games in PyeongChang in 2018, and he watched them win gold there. Seeing that team achieve the highest pinnacle of their sport made it crystal clear for Zych – he wanted to be there himself one day.
“When I’m back home, typically I’m skating when I can. I work out five or six days a week. Same thing with the diet and all that, so it’s full-time commitment,” Zych said on his day-to-day routine. “All the decisions I make throughout the day involve hockey in some way.”
Zych’s family and friends were thrilled with the news, but they haven’t seen a lot of him lately. Zych is currently in Nashville with the rest of the 2022 Paralympic team, where they’ll be in residency almost until they leave for the Games in late February.
Zych will have a short time to go home before the team takes their charter flight to China, but he’s glad to be with his squad for now. Zych has an extra bond with a couple other players on the team – fellow Paralympian rookies David Eustace and Griffin Lamarre play on the same club hockey team as Zych, the Northeast Passage Wildcats.
“The whole team is super close, but those guys specifically, we’ve been in each other’s lives for seven, eight years, and we all take hockey pretty seriously,” Zych said on Eustace and Lamarre. “So time’s kind of flown by but honestly, we’ve been pretty big pieces of each other’s lives, so to be doing this together is super, super cool.”
Zych and the rest of the USA sled hockey Paralympians will open the Paralympic Games with a rematch of the 2018 gold medal game against Canada on March 5; the puck drops at 12:05 a.m. ET. The U.S. won that 2018 final in overtime, 2-1, in PyeongChang.
The United States has medaled in five of its six Paralympic appearances (gold – 2002, 2010, 2014, 2018; bronze – 2006).