Ladies skate into Bay Area, ready to go for gold

WESLEY CHAPEL (FOX 13) - The road to the Olympics travels through Wesley Chapel for the U.S. women's hockey team. There are 42 players from 18 different states here dreaming of going for the gold.

This camp is about who gets to travel to South Korea in February. Only 23 women will leave Florida as the official Olympic team.

"I think everyone gets a little nervous,” said USA forward Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson. "Just how you channel those nerves and make that energy productive. We're all fighting for a spot to play in the next Olympics."

There's no nerves when it comes to putting the USA sweater. Just a swell in pride.

“Definitely something special. You take a minute to look at that before you put it on for the first time,” said USA forward Alex Carpenter. "It's just something special because you worked for it for a long time."

When it comes to women's hockey the USA is one of the most dominant teams in the world. They just won their eighth world title in last 10 years, but when it comes to the Olympics, the U.S. has come up short. They've lost twice to Canada, 3-2.

"The difference between winning and losing is very small. Even in the world championship wins, it's often very tight games,” said USA head coach Robb Stauber. "We want to see if we can separate that a bit and give ourselves the best chance to bring home the gold medal."

Getting these women mentally prepared starts with a time-out in practice. A moment to close the eyes and visualize the goal.

"You talk to any great athlete and that's the deciding factor between being on the podium and not being on the podium,” said Lamoureux-Davidson.  "The difference between gold and silver is the mental aspect of the game and visualization."

And does Lamoureux-Davidson ever close her eyes and visualize putting on a gold medal?

"Yeah, I've had moments of that too,” she said.

But for this week, the only thing the players are thinking about is making the cut.