Angela Ruggiero

Sports Business Daily

With their 9-1 win over Sweden, the U.S. women’s hockey team advanced to a Gold Medal faceoff against Canada on Thursday, a matchup that seemed a foregone conclusion as each team rolled through the tournament. Team USA has not won the Gold Medal in women’s hockey since the sport debuted at the ’98 Nagano Games, but defender Angela Ruggiero and her teammates now find themselves one game away from a return to the promised land. On the strength of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the last three Winter Olympics, Ruggiero has built up an impressive endorsement portfolio featuring Nike, Visa, Coca-Cola, Easton and Qwest Communications. For the Vancouver Games, the four-time Olympian is a member of both Coca-Cola’s “Six-Pack” of athletes and Team Visa, which Relay Worldwide Dir of Strategic Consulting Jonathan Jensen called “considerable accomplishments for an athlete in a sport that has only been contested in four Olympics.”

PLANNING AHEAD:  With her career winding down, Ruggiero is looking more toward her future when it comes to endorsement deals, according to her agent Sheryl Shade. Ruggiero hopes to solidify her legacy in the sport through her continued efforts to promote participation among young girls, and she looks to sponsors to contribute to these initiatives through in-kind services, equipment, clothing, jerseys and more. “That’s one of the key elements when we’re talking with anyone, to really help her because she wants to expand the sport,” said Shade. “The sport has been very good to her.” Ruggiero also hopes to parlay relationships with sponsors into a second career when she ultimately decides to hang up her skates. She declined an opportunity to work for Donald Trump after her elimination from “The Apprentice” in ’07, choosing instead to focus on hockey and return to the ice. And while she has not yet ruled out competing at the ’14 Sochi Games, it is not too early for her to start looking to the future. Shade said Ruggiero hopes to hold conversations with sponsors like Visa and Coca-Cola about her various off-ice career interests, like sports marketing and broadcasting. “Olympic sports sponsorships aren’t always about the money,” Shade said. “It’s the opportunities they can offer and where they can take her.” (read more)

TSN- After sweeping their opponents throughout the tournament, the U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Team earned silver as they were edged out by Canada in the championship game at the 2009 Women’s Four Nations Cup, Nov. 3-7 in Tikkurila, Finland. The event featured the top four women’s hockey teams in the world – the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden – and is the last international women’s hockey tournament prior to the start of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The U.S. team opened preliminary-round play with a 4-0 win over Finland and added two additional tournament wins after defeating both Sweden and Canada 3- 2.   The U.S. Women’s team beat Canada to win the gold medal at the 2009 World Championships earlier this year. (read more)

Los Angeles Times

Like most athletes as they age, three-time U.S. Olympic hockey medalist Angela Ruggiero of Simi Valley realized that her 29-year-old body wasn’t rebounding as quickly as it used to after games and workouts.

Intent on helping Team USA return to gold-medal glory in February at the Vancouver Games, she worked out with male hockey players this summer at the Athletes Performance training facility at the Home Depot Center in Carson. She emerged leaner and stronger—and believes she might have added 10 years to her playing career.

Ruggiero spent May, June, July and part of August at Athletes Performance as the only woman in a training group that included Chris Drury of the New York Rangers, George Parros of the Ducks, Richard Park of the New York Islanders, former King Noah Clarke, and other pro players.

 “For me it was really cool,” she said from Spokane, Wash., where the U.S. women’s national team will faced Canada in a game televised by the NHL Network. (read more)

Visa Inc. a Worldwide Olympic Games Sponsor for more than two decades, today announced the global launch of its Olympic-themed marketing campaign for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Go World. This global campaign, which features television, digital and out-of-home advertising, host market merchant activation programs and usage promotions, enables Visa to connect with cardholders and Olympic and Paralympic Games fans to drive preference for and usage of Visa products worldwide.

Team Visa – Vancouver (US) athletes featured here include Angela Ruggiero (ice hockey), Julia Mancuso (alpine skiing), Lindsey Jacobellis (snowboard, snowboard cross), Ryan St. Onge (freestyle skiing, aerials), and Paralympian Alexi Salamone (ice sledge hockey).

The Go World campaign celebrates athleticism and human triumph through unique athlete stories. The campaign also includes merchant offers, enhanced social media applications and a deeper focus on Visa-sponsored athletes (Team Visa – Vancouver). (read more)

U.S. National Hockey Team member Angela Ruggiero was nominated for the Jefferson Award for Public Service. The three-time Olympian (1998, 2002, 2006) joins 52 other athletes as nominees for the national recognition system honoring community and public service in America.

Fans can VOTE for Angela by text messaging STAR36 to 55333, or online by clicking here. Voting ends Nov. 15. Visit Angela Ruggiero’s page at AllStarsHelpingKids.org

Ruggiero began her community involvement at an early age, helping to launch the Angela Ruggiero Girls’ Hockey School and serving as a spokesperson for the Women’s Sports Foundation. She has reached out to the international community as well, serving as the director of the New York Islanders’ Project Hope, which provides educational opportunities to young Chinese athletes. In addition, Ruggiero spent six weeks in Uganda as a mentor with Right to Play, which uses sport and play to enrich the lives of disadvantaged kids around the world.

Ruggiero will also be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame on Dec. 1 as a member of the gold medal-winning 1998 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team. (read more)