Allison Jaime "A. J." Mleczko Griswold (born June 14, 1975) is an American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and analyst. She won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

and a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

Playing career

Mleczko attended

New Canaan Country School New Canaan Country School (abbreviated NCCS) is an independent, private day school in New Canaan, Connecticut for students in Beginners (age 3) through Grade 9 from Fairfield and Westchester Counties. The current head of school is Aaron Cooper ...

and is a graduate of The Taft School in

Watertown, Connecticut Watertown is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region. The population was 22,105 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Waterbury. The urban center of the town is the Wat ...

. Mleczko played college hockey at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where she led the Crimson to a national title in 1999. That same year she became the second winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award, which is awarded annually to the best female college ice hockey player in the United States. On September 24, 2002, she was inducted into the New England Women's Hall of Fame. Mleczko was inducted on June 20, 2019, into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame located in

Troy, Michigan Troy is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Detroit, Troy is located about north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 87,294, ...

. Her paternal great-grandparents were Polish immigrants.

Broadcasting career

She is the #3 color commentator for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

/ ABC, teaming with play-by-play announcer Mike Monaco. and both lead game and studio analyst MSG Networks NHL broadcasts for the

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...

. She previously worked for the

NHL on NBC The ''NHL on NBC'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by NBC Sports, and televised on NBC properties, including MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, USA Network and NBCSN in the United States. While NBC covered the ...

, where she became the first woman to commentate for an NHL game, including playoffs. Additionally, she hosts the ''On the Bus With Cammi & AJ'' podcast with former teammate Cammi Granato. Furthermore, she also called five women's hockey games at the Winter Olympic games for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

Personal life

Mleczko currently resides in Concord, Massachusetts with her husband, Jason, and their four children. She is a cousin of diplomat Rufus Gifford.

Career statistics

Career statistics are fro
Eliteprospects.com
o
The Internet Hockey Database
o
USA Hockey
or the Harvard Crimson, or the 2000 United States Women's National Team Media Guide

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

*1999 American Women's College Hockey Alliance All-Americans, First Team *

Patty Kazmaier Award The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is given to the top female college ice hockey player in the United States. The award is presented during the women's annual ice hockey championship, the Frozen Four. The award was first presented in 1998. The ...

* 1999 Bob Allen Women's Player of the Year Award *Women's Beanpot Hall of Fame (inducted 2011)

References

External links

* * *
1998 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mleczko, Allison 1975 births American women's ice hockey forwards Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Massachusetts Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Living people Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics MSG Network people Olympic gold medalists for the United States in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for the United States in ice hockey Patty Kazmaier Award winners People from Nantucket, Massachusetts Taft School alumni American women sports commentators Ice hockey players from Massachusetts 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen