Trailing 2-0 after two periods of the 2014 Winter Olympics bronze medal game, Switzerland’s Stefanie Marty lined up at center ice for a faceoff.

Marty lost the faceoff, but it only took a minute for Switzerland to cut its deficit in half. Less than five minutes later, after Marty drew a tripping penalty that resulted in a power play, Switzerland tied the game and later won 4-3, earning the first women’s hockey medal in the history of Switzerland’s program.

It was Marty’s third time competing in the Olympics after appearances in 2006 and 2010. But after seventh and fifth place finishes, respectively, in her first two campaigns, the third period comeback against Sweden gave Marty her first and only Olympic medal.

“If you ask me now, or anyone on the team, ‘How did you do that?’ We don’t even know,” Marty said. “It was just 20 minutes (where) we went out there all for one goal — something we worked for more than four years (for) — and it was just unbelievable that we made it happen.”

Those 20 minutes were preceded by the 17 years of work that Marty and her sister Julia Marty put into hockey. Marty came to Syracuse in 2008, the same year the women’s hockey program debuted, and played for three years while scoring 32 goals as a forward. She became the first-ever SU Winter Olympian with appearances in 2006, 2010 and 2014 before retiring from hockey in 2017. This winter, Marty will be watching as Switzerland competes in the Beijing Olympics, as the team looks to medal again like it did in 2014.

Marty and Julia started playing hockey at 8 years old after they spent six months figure skating, Julia said. The two were teammates every year they participated in international play from 2003-15. The only time they didn’t suit up together was in college when, after both spent the 2007-08 season at New Hampshire, Marty transferred to Syracuse and Julia transferred to Northeastern.

Marty said she was able to appreciate the time spent playing with her sister more as she got older, especially after they played separately for three years.

“When I had (Julia) beside me, I didn’t have to step up every single time because I knew she would do exactly the same as I would,” Marty said. “We’d share the work we thought had to be done when we thought something didn’t work well with the team.”

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The two parted ways prior to their sophomore years because Julia wanted to go to school in a big city and Marty wanted to help build a program from the ground floor, which she was able to do at Syracuse.

Marty felt her consistency set her apart from other players since she was “able to perform pretty much every game at a high level,” she said. SU head coach Paul Flanagan called her “as consistent a player as we’ve ever had (at Syracuse).”

Flanagan said he often told other players to model themselves after Marty. He referenced her training habits, specifically her active warm ups before practice — something Europeans brought to U.S. hockey, he said.

While Marty’s international experience helped her succeed at the collegiate level, she also said playing at Syracuse made it “easier to adjust” to Olympic competition. Upon arriving in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics, Marty said she was used to playing at a higher level than her teammates who played in the Swiss Women’s Hockey League.

Marty’s experiences in 2006 helped her at the 2010 Olympics as well, she said. With all the distractions in Olympic Village, it was difficult for the 2006 team to stay focused on hockey, she said, since it was so easy to go watch other events, play billiards and watch movies.

“It was much easier for the whole team in Vancouver because at least half of the team had experienced that already,” Marty said. “We knew we were there to play hockey and we wanted to have success as a team.”

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That mindset also helped Marty increase her production at the 2010 Games, where she tied Canada’s Meghan Agosta for top scorer of the tournament. Following a hat trick in a 5-2 win over Slovakia in group play, Marty posted four goals against China in the fifth-place semifinal game. She then capped off the Olympics by scoring both of the team’s goals — the latter of which iced the game in a shootout — in a 2-1 win over Russia, securing fifth place for Switzerland.

Currently, Marty is an assistant coach for SC Reinach of the SWHL. She likes sharing what she learned from her playing days with her players, she said, and she thinks it’s good for them to be coached by someone who played at the highest level.

“You want (the players) to work hard, but the biggest thing is you want them to have fun — it’s only a game,” Marty said. “They should go out there and have fun but also give everything so they don’t have any regrets at the end.”

Published on February 6, 2022 at 11:32 pm

Contact Spencer: spgoldst@syr.edu