Team USA’s Jack Hughes may have netted the game-winner against Canada, but a photographer captured an indelible moment of her own — an iconic photo of his gap-toothed grin after securing the first U.S. men’s hockey Olympic gold medal since 1980.
“I just was kind of just doing my job. It wasn’t until maybe well after the event that I thought, okay, that that could be pretty iconic, pretty cool,” Getty Images sports staff photographer Elsa Garrison, who snapped the image after Sunday’s game, told CBS News 24/7 from Milan.
The photo shows Hughes, fist pumped, draped in an American flag, with a bloodied mouth and chipped front teeth. It’s the kind of picture that will likely go down in history.
“I was running around the outskirts of the rink like a crazy woman,” Garrison joked, recalling how she captured the celebration.
Garrison said she was in the right place at the right time because she had scoped out where the Team USA families were sitting, anticipating the players would skate straight to them after the game. Once the initial celebration ended, she said she “hightailed it” to where Hughes’ family was seated, with only seconds to spare.
Elsa Garrison / Getty Images
“Even though sports are very spontaneous, there is a lot of planning I do in my head with all these different scenarios. So when things happen in a split second, I know exactly what I’m going to do, and I just go after it,” Garrison said, noting that Hughes’ parents were sitting right behind her when she captured the shot.
The image of Hughes at the 2026 Winter Olympics quickly went viral online, grabbing headlines nationwide. The 24-year-old NHL star said he lost at least one and maybe two of his front teeth taking a high stick late in the game.
Garrison didn’t expect that particular photo to blow up — but then her phone started buzzing nonstop. Her initial Instagram post quickly racked up thousands of likes, and she was being tagged in dozens of other posts.
“It’s still not registered yet. I think to me it’s a lovely moment. It’s a nice moment,” said Garrison, adding that she regularly photographs Hughes during his games with the New Jersey Devils and is very familiar with his style of play. “I’m still in shock, honestly.”
When asked how it felt to be mentioned alongside the greats of sports photography, Garrison just laughed: “No pressure.”
She said the Hughes photo reflects both her skill and a bit of the “luck of the draw.”
“As sports photographers, that’s what we love to capture … And you know, you just have to kind of react to the scenarios and the scene around you and have that game plan,” she said.
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