For the first time in 50 years, Team Canada won the gold medal in Olympic hockey during the 2002 Salt Lake City games. This was the second Olympics where NHL players were allowed to participate and after a disappointing fourth place showing in the 1998 Nagano, Japan games, Team Canada turned its native son and greatest player of all-time Wayne Gretzky to form the squad. Gretzky served as the Executive Director of Team Canada for the 2002 Winter Olympics. After a slow start in the preliminary round, Canada stormed through the Medal Round, culminating in the victory over the host United States to win the country’s first gold medal in men’s ice hockey since 1952.  

Presented here is the championship ring ordered for the Gretzky family. The center of the ring has a red stone with the Olympic rings presented in diamonds and a crown on the center top ring. Around the red stone in raised lettering is “GOLD MEDALIST 2002 OLYMPICS” with a Canadian hockey logo on the center right and Salt Lake City Olympics logo on the left flanked by individual diamonds (four total). The left shank has “GRETZKY’ in raised relief over a black background with a raised Canadian hockey logo in red and black and six surrounding raised maple leaves with the years of the previous gold medal winning teams from Canada (’20, ’24, ’28, ’32, ’48, ’52). The right shank has raised banners over a black background that read “CANADA VS USA” above the “SALT LAKE 2002” logo and “SPIRIT PREVAILS” in raised relief below. Engraved on the inside of this size 8 ½ ring that weighs approximately 33.8 grams is “LET THE SPIRIT PREVAIL”. The ring comes with a 4 ½ inch long by 3 ¾ inch deep and 2-inch tall wooden presentation box that opens to a nice display feature. A gold plate on the inside reads “WAYNE GRETZKY GOLD MEDALIST 2002 OLYMPICS MENS HOCKEY”.

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