Photographer describes capturing hockey star Jack Hughes’ toothless grin after gold-medal win: “Still in shock”

Team USA’s Jack Hughes might have netted the game-winner in opposition to Canada, however a photographer captured an indelible second of her personal — an iconic photograph of his gap-toothed grin after securing the primary U.S. males’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 activities employees photographer Elsa Garrison, who snapped the picture after Sunday’s recreation, advised CBS News 24/7 from Milan.

The photograph exhibits Hughes, fist pumped, draped in an American flag, with a bloodied mouth and chipped entrance enamel. It’s the sort of image that may possible go down in historical past.

“I was running around the outskirts of the rink like a crazy woman,” Garrison joked, recalling how she captured the celebration.

Garrison mentioned she was in the suitable place on the proper time as a result of she had scoped out the place the Team USA households have been sitting, anticipating the gamers would skate straight to them after the sport. Once the preliminary celebration ended, she mentioned she “hightailed it” to the place Hughes’ household was seated, with solely seconds to spare. 

“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 mentioned, noting that Hughes’ mother and father have been sitting proper behind her when she captured the shot. 

The picture of Hughes on the 2026 Winter Olympics shortly went viral on-line, grabbing headlines nationwide. The 24-year-old NHL star mentioned he misplaced at the very least one and perhaps two of his entrance enamel taking a excessive stick late within the recreation.

Garrison did not count on that individual photograph to explode — however then her cellphone began buzzing nonstop. Her preliminary Instagram submit shortly racked up 1000’s of likes, and she or he was being tagged in dozens of different posts.

“It’s still not registered yet. I think to me it’s a lovely moment. It’s a nice moment,” mentioned Garrison, including that she repeatedly pictures Hughes throughout his video games with the New Jersey Devils and could be very accustomed to his fashion of play. “I’m still in shock, honestly.”

When requested the way it felt to be talked about alongside the greats of sports activities pictures, Garrison simply laughed: “No pressure.”

She mentioned the Hughes photograph displays each her talent and a little 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 mentioned.