USA Hockey has announced that first-year St. Thomas women’s hockey head coach Joel Johnson has been named head coach for the 2022 Olympic women’s hockey team.
The 2022 Olympic Winter Games will be staged Feb. 4-20 in Beijing, China.
Johnson, with more than 20 years of collegiate coaching experience, will be guiding his first-ever Olympic team but is no stranger to the international stage.
His first involvement with USA Hockey dates back to working summer camps in 2000 and he has been closely involved with the U.S. Women’s National Team program since 2015, highlighted by leading the U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team to four straight gold medals (2015-18) in the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.
Johnson has also served as head coach of the U.S. Under-22 Women’s Select Team on two occasions for the U22 Series against Canada, leading Team USA to a three-game sweep in 2018 and a 2-1 series victory in 2019.
Johnson, who will serve as head coach of the 2021 U.S. Women’s National Team at the upcoming IIHF Women’s World Championship in Calgary from Aug. 21-30, made his U.S. Women’s National Team debut as an assistant coach in 2018-19 and helped guide the U.S. to its fourth straight Women’s Four Nations Cup title that season, as well as the gold medal at the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Espoo, Finland.
