Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is an American ice hockey player. The Olympic hockey player received a Bronze Medal and a Silver Medal from the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics respectively. They were chosen by US President Barack Obama as part of his delegation to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Today's Out Spotlight is Caitlin Cahow.

Caitlin Cahow was born May 20,1985 in New Haven, Connecticut and raised in Branford, Connecticut. She was named after figure skater Caitlin Carruthers, who won a silver medal for pairs skating with her brother, Peter Carruthers, at the 1984 Olympics. Her mother, Barbara Kinder was a professor of surgery at Yale University School of Medicine.

Her father, Elton, was a surgeon and he died of cancer when she was only 11 years old.
Cahow has two brothers, Garrett and Christian.

Cahow attended the Foote School, where she graduated in 2000 and then attended the Hotchkiss School where she graduated in 2003 after playing soccer, field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse. She then went on to college graduating from Harvard University in 2008 with a degree in anthropology. She also studied the French language while there and has used her language skills for interviews with French-Canadian media. She went on to attend Boston College Law School, graduating with a J.D. in the Spring of 2013.


While Cahow’s mother was a professor at Yale University, her first exposure to the ice rink was through figure skating. After one figure skating practice, she saw hockey players take to the ice and noticed that the players had ponytails. From there, she gave up figure skating and attended a kids hockey clinic. Most of the students at the clinic were boys. Her mother forced her to play her first year in hockey wearing figure skates.

Cahow played four years at Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey in the ECAC Hockey. Led all ECACH defensemen with 37 points (15-22) in 34 games. And as a Junior (2006–07) led team defensemen with 28 points (8-20) in 30 games.

As a student at Harvard, she met Boston Lobsters tennis player Nicole Pratt. Cahow and Pratt developed a hockey-tennis dry-land workout which helped Pratt make a comeback at the French Open tennis tournament.

After collegiate hockey she went on to play for the Western Women's Hockey League. She tied for first among the league's defensemen with 21 points (3-18) in 19 games. She helped the Minnesota Whitecaps to the Western Women's Hockey League championship in 2008-09 season and was named top defenseman at the Championship.

One of Cahow's heroes was Manon Rhéaume. The two got the opportunity to play together for the Minnesota Whitecaps.

During the 2012-13 CWHL season, Cahow was the captain of the Boston Blades. By season’s end, she would become the second American-born captain to help a team win the Clarkson Cup.

Four-time member of the U.S. Women's National Team for the International Ice Hockey Federation World Women's Championship (gold 2008, 2009, 2011 and silver 2007)she played forward for the majority of the tournament and scored twice in the gold-medal game in 2009. She led U.S. defensemen with five points (2-3) and named one of Team USA's top-three players in 2008.

Cahow won a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Before the Olympics, Cahow Captained the United States Under-22 Select Team in 2006 after the USA Hockey National Women's Festival in Lake Placid.

Cahow is openly lesbian and was chosen by US President Barack Obama as part of his delegation to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She has called the trip humbling.


 Olympics for ALL Moment:

The telecommunications giant AT&T posted a blog on Feb. 4 declaring its opposition to Russia's anti-propaganda law. 

"AT&T has a long and proud history of support for the LGBT community in the United States and everywhere around the world where we do business. We support LGBT equality globally and we condemn violence, discrimination and harassment targeted against LGBT individuals everywhere. Russia's law is harmful to LGBT individuals and families, and it's harmful to a diverse society," the statement read. 

The company is not an IOC sponsor, but is a longtime sponsor of the United States Olympic Committee.

And because of a glitch - the wonderful video from Sweden didn't show up in yesterday's post.  Here it is: