Abby Roque has already won a prestigious award presented to some of women's hockey's best American players and she has been predicted to become one of the best players in the world.
Now she's waiting for something else -- to be called an Olympian.
The former University of Wisconsin forward is competing for a spot on the U.S. women's national team that will seek to defend its gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics from Feb. 4-20.
If Roque is selected, the 24-year-old member of the Wahnapitae First Nation will be the first Indigenous woman to play for the U.S. women's national team in the Olympics.
The roster will be announced at the 2022 Discover NHL Winter Classic between the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild (7 p.m. ET; TNT, SN1, TVAS, NHL LIVE) at Target Field on New Year's Day.
"It really does mean the world to me, and I hope to a lot of other people," Roque said. "I just think for visibility in the sport and to make sure that every Indigenous youth knows that they can make it in the sport, I think that's so cool and crucial to the sport. I just, hopefully, want to be the first so I'm definitely not the last."
Roque earned Olympic consideration after starring at Wisconsin and sparkling in her debut on the 2021 Professional Women's Hockey Players Association Dream Gap Tour.
The Sault St. Marie, Michigan, native scored 170 points (56 goals, 114 assists) in 155 games at Wisconsin from 2016-20, including 58 points (26 goals, 32 assists) in 36 games in her senior season.
Roque was named the 2020 Bob Allen Women's Hockey Player of the Year, an award presented by USA Hockey annually to the top American-born women's hockey player.
Past winners include Kendall Coyne Schofield, Hilary Knight, Maddie Rooney, Brianna Decker, Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Amanda Kessel.
Roque (pronounced "rock") was a top-three finalist for the 2020 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, presented annually to the top player in NCAA Division I women's hockey.