Team USA Media Summit: Jack Wallace, Sled Hockey

When Jack Wallace took his seat at the Team USA Media Summit in New York City, the conversation turned toward one theme: balance.

The two-time Paralympic gold medalist joined fellow athletes Oksana Masters and Erin Jackson, alongside USOPC Senior Director of Psychological Services Dr. Jess Bartley, for The Pursuit of Health Above All: An Athlete’s Perspective, presented by Eli Lilly. The discussion explored how the world’s best athletes build longevity through health, consistency, and awareness.

“To be able to compete not only on the elite level but as an elite level consistently, you have to do all those little things throughout the day, every single day to make sure you’re always on the top of the top of your game,” Wallace said. “Earlier in my career I was very fixated on just getting to the gym and just absolutely murdering myself, trying to lift as much as possible, trying to go as fast as I possibly could, but really you get to a point of diminishing returns, dealt with a lot of injuries, dealt with a lot of nagging things that hindered my performance. But then now later in my career, I’ve learned that really just a little bit can go a long way. And just being consistent over the entire year is way better than doing four days for three months right before the competition. So just developing that consistency over time.

“And for me, one of the biggest choices that I made a few years ago was just my nutrition overall. And not only is that going to help with my performance, it’s going to make my overall health throughout the rest of my life that much better. Just to make those choices every single day to eat really healthy foods, it makes you feel better, you’re happier. So that’s one thing that anyone can really do.”

Beyond the Physical: A Healthier Mindset

Wallace also shared how the conversation around mental health in sports has evolved—and where it should go next.

“I think it just needs to just keep spreading its wings. I mean, I feel like maybe five or six years ago is when it really broke into the sports space, really, really took hold where you heard a lot of athletes start talking about it. And I think now we’ve reached a place where a lot of athletes are aware—it’s been perforated throughout the media—athletes dealing with mental health and overcoming that.

“But I think at this point maybe it needs to shift to maybe more strategy driven, where for a long time, which rightfully so, it was all about just letting people know that it was okay to talk about it. It’s okay to have it out there. And now I feel like successfully that message has been shared quite a bit. Still more work needs to be done, but I think now shifting to make it even better would be to now provide strategies.

“Even just… we have access to the mental health services with the USOPC and just something as simple as taking that questionnaire twice a year that a bunch of me and my teammates do. I’m sure a bunch of people do with the USOPC. It’s just such a nice way to just, if you’re not used to that, just checking in on yourself in a different way where you’re not testing your splits or your lifts or your shooting accuracy or anything like that. It’s just another way to check in on yourself and be more consistent.”

Heading into Milano–Cortina 2026, Wallace admitted he’s also working on breaking one habit off the ice.

“Recently just been spending a little too much time on my phone doing scrolling, stuff like that. Getting off the—obviously social media is an amazing tool and we’re leveraging it really hard to promote the Olympics and Paralympics, but for an athlete sometimes it’s maybe not the best thing to fixate on. So after spending a lot of time working on it and trying to improve it, I think leading up to the games it’s going to be important to just take a step back and really just focus on the task at hand.”

Changing the Conversation Around Sled Hockey

When Inside the Rink asked Wallace how the sport can continue to grow, Wallace brought clarity and energy to the room.

“Yeah, great question. I think, I mean, look to exactly what the NHL is doing and how much they’ve grown the game recently. They’re focusing on the skill, the speed, and how entertaining it really is. And I think we’re trying to do the same thing with sled hockey—showing how good of a product we’re putting on the ice, right? You can focus on the story, the disability, the overcoming of whatever the athlete has to overcome.

“But I think at the end of the day, it’s an amazing sport and you have to focus on the skill, the speed, and just really getting the misconception out of it. People think that it’s slow and that it’s not physical and that kind of stuff because maybe you’ll see a rec league team or in a lot of cases you’ll have mentally impaired athletes and physically impaired athletes both playing sled hockey at community rinks.

“And that’s a great opportunity and it’s really special to be able to have that, but that might be someone’s only experience with sled hockey. So they see it and they don’t really view it as an elite sport. They don’t think of it as this fast, physical, amazing thing that we get to play. So I think focusing on the true athleticism and all the special athletes that the sport has to offer.”

He also addressed the Olympic experience directly, reflecting on how it unites athletes beyond politics or pressure.

“Yeah, I mean in my experience during the Paralympics, I feel like a lot of that political noise kind of ceases to exist once you’re inside the village. Once the game starts, it really brings the world together. I mean, in 2018 there was political tensions with North Korea—we worried about that. The North Korean athletes in the village, no issues there. In Beijing, in the midst of COVID, we were all worried about that. But once we got in there and the game started, everyone was happy to compete and happy to see athletes from all over the world doing what they love.”

From Jersey Grit to Global Gold

When asked about his roots, Wallace didn’t hesitate.

“I think there’s a certain Jersey attitude that we grew up—nodding your head, yeah—a certain Jersey attitude, don’t give an F attitude that we have. We get a lot of hate for, I don’t know what reason, but you just grow up with that little chip on your shoulder. And yeah, I think carrying that through my athletic career has definitely helped me not dealing with any BS and was just willing to push through.”

That same mentality helped drive him from a five-sport kid in Franklin Lakes to a two-time Paralympic gold medalist (PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022), three-time world champion, and Best Defenseman at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Wallace, who also competes in paracanoe (KL3), nearly qualified for the Paris 2024 Games—falling just fractions of a second short after competing in both the World Para Ice Hockey Championships in Canada and the ParaCanoe Championships in Hungary during the same week.

2025 IPH Cup Championship

Most recently, Wallace and Team USA capped an impressive weekend at the 2025 IPH Cup in Ostrava, Czechia, where the team defeated Canada 3–0 to claim its fourth straight IPH Cup championship.

Declan Farmer scored twice, Malik Jones netted the shorthanded game-winner, and Griffin LaMarre recorded a shutout. Wallace contributed an assist on Farmer’s second goal, showcasing the consistency and leadership that define his play.

“I thought this was a great way to finish this tournament, a really solid effort from beginning to end tonight,” said Head Coach David Hoff. “From the goaltending, to all the way up front, we played a really solid game and hopefully that’s a start to a really strong season.”

Team USA outshot Canada 27–12 and went 1-for-4 on the power play while holding Canada scoreless on five opportunities.

Wallace’s message at the summit echoed the same foundation that drives his team’s success: small habits, steady effort, and pride in the journey.

“You just have to keep showing up,” Wallace said. “Do the small things right, and the rest follows.”

SOURCE:

USA Hockey, 2025, “U.S. National Sled Team Wins IPH Cup Championship,” https://teamusa.usahockey.com/news_article/show/1348721)