Canadian Olympic gold medallist and PWHL Walter Cup champion Claire Thompson announced her retirement from professional hockey to return to medical school, per The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian.
The 28-year-old defender made the announcement in an exclusive interview with The Athletic.
“A career in medicine has always been an overarching goal of mine and I feel that now is the best time in my life to step away from hockey,” Thompson said. “I have achieved far more than I could have ever hoped for and I feel like I’m ready to step away and continue on the long road ahead of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.”
Thompson helped Canada take home gold at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, where she also set a scoring record for defenders in a single tournament with 13 points. She took a two-year break from the pursuit of a career in medicine to help Canada compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, where they eventually won silver.
Thompson’s 17 career points in 14 Olympic games are an all-time record.
“It’s definitely not a goal I set out to accomplish, or anything I thought was possible,” Thompson said. “It is the byproduct of being a part of two really, really amazing teams. A lot of those points came [in 2022] when our team set almost every scoring and points record there was, so I really just feel like I was in the right place at the right time.”
She revealed in the interview that she is now back at NYU Grossman, one of the top medical schools in the United States.
Thompson was the third-overall pick in the PWHL draft in 2024, when she helped the Minnesota Frost win the Walter Cup and was named a finalist for Defender of the Year.
“That was such a fun run,” Thompson said about the 2024-25 season. “I feel so lucky to have been drafted by Minnesota … I really feel like it was just a fortunate happenstance that they took a chance on me after the year off.”
She spent following season with the Vancouver Goldeneyes, where she was the first signing in team history in the expansion free agency window.
“Getting to play in front of Canadians and living back in Canada was something that was also really special,” she said. “To be able to play my last season in Canada, in front of Canadian fans, was amazing.
“I absolutely loved my time in Vancouver. The city is so special and so beautiful and has such a fun, vibrant energy to it. I’m just so grateful I got to spend a year of my life there.”
In 58 career PWHL games, Thompson finished with eight goals and 35 points.
“It’s definitely bittersweet, knowing that my time with (hockey) is done because I know that I’m still physically able to play and compete at (a high) level,” she said. “But I also feel very content and ready for this next chapter of my life.”
