The United States women’s hockey team won’t be traveling to the White House to celebrate their gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but they have a new invite with another American icon.
A USA Hockey spokesperson announced on Monday that the team declined an invitation to the White House, a day after President Donald Trump spoke mockingly of the team during a celebratory call to the men’s team following their gold medal.
Amid the controversy, the team has gotten another invite from a legendary rapper turned hype man for Olympic women’s sports.
Flavor Flav Steps Up for Women’s Team
Taking to social media on Monday, former Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav instead invited the team to celebrate with him in Las Vegas.
“If the USA Women’s Hockey team wants a real celebration and invite ,,, I’ll host them in Las Vegas,” Flavor Flav shared in a post on Bluesky. “Do some nice dinners and shows and good times. I’m sure I can get a hotel and airline to help me out here and celebrate these women for real for real. 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾”
The U.S. women’s team ended a dominant run through the Winter Olympics with a gold medal, but appeared to be denigrated by President Trump as he was congratulating the men’s team.
“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the woman’s team. You do know that?” Trump said, leading to laughter among some of the men’s players.
“I do believe I probably would be impeached,” Trump added.
The women’s team, through a USA Hockey spokesperson, shared a polite decline to the White House invitation. The statement cited other commitments, not making mention of the controversy sparked by Trump’s comments.
“We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” the spokesperson said, via USA Today.
“Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
Flavor Flav Supporting Women’s Sports
Flavor Flav assumed his long-held role as hype man during the 2024 Summer Olympics. He attended many events, adopting the women’s water polo team.
Water polo goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, the first Black woman to make a U.S. Olympic water polo team in 2016, praised Flavor Flav for bringing new attention to her sport.
“I read through the comments and I see people asking questions about water polo and like people of color like wanting to start playing. And that’s a different community than I’ve seen talk about our sport,” she said, via NBC Olympics.
He even used his connections and longstanding friendship with pop star Taylor Swift to get the players tickets to her show in Paris during the Summer Games.
“She was performing in the La Defense Arena, which is where the finals – quarters, semis and finals – for water polo will be. So for us to be able to visualize and kind of get to see the stadium, the only way was to try to go to a Taylor Swift concert,” said Maggie Steffens, the team’s captain.
Flavor Flav also supported many individual athletes, helping discus thrower Veronica Fraley when she had trouble paying her rent during the Summer Games.
U.S. Women’s Hockey Team Gets New Invite Amid Donald Trump Controversy