PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Former University of Vermont women's hockey standout Amanda Pelkey '15 became the fifth UVM alum in school history to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games on Thursday as the United States beat Canada 3-2 in a shootout. 
 
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Pelkey is the first former Catamount to win a gold medal since men's hockey alumni Martin St. Louis '97 and Patrick Sharp '02 both took home the gold with Team Canada in 2014. Barbara Cochran won the women's slalom gold in the 1972 Sapporo Games to become UVM's second gold medal winner.
 
The famed Albert Gutterson was the first Catamount to win the gold, taking the top spot in the long jump at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, setting an Olympic record with a distance 7.33 meters.
 
Playing in her first Olympic games, the Montpelier, Vermont native recorded two assists in Team USA's five games.
 
After the United States opened the tournament with a 3-1 win over Finland on Feb. 11, Pelkey recorded her first Olympic point in a 5-0 win over the Olympic Athletes from Russia on Feb. 13.
 
Canada then defeated the United States 2-1 in the final round robin game played on Feb. 18. Pelkey recorded her second assist of the tournament in the semifinal game against Finland as Team USA posted a 5-0 victory.
 
In the Gold Medal Game yesterday, the United States secured a 3-2 shootout victory over Canada to collect gold for the first time since 1998 in Nagano.
 
Pelkey finished her career at Vermont as the program's all-time leading scorer and the only player to break the 100-point benchmark. She helped the program to its first-ever winning season in 2013-14 (18-14-4) and scored Vermont's first Division I playoff goal on Mar. 2, 2013 against Northeastern.

For full UVM Olympic coverage, please visit go.uvm.edu/olympics.