Whenever the summer or winter games come around, fans around the world clamor for a peek into the Olympic Village — and it’s rarely as glamorous as many assume.
Team Canada hockey star Sarah Nurse took to TikTok on Tuesday, February 3, to show fans what it’s like inside the tiny room she shares with team goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer.
The video showed the two athletes struggling to haul their luggage into the room, then rearranging the beds so that they weren’t positioned right next to each other. The beds, at least, were not made of cardboard — something that became a particular pain point for Olympians at the Paris 2024 Summer Games.
“Remodeling our Olympic Village Room all because we didn’t want to hold hands in bed,” Nurse, 31, wrote over the post.
“Bringing it back to the dorms w @Emerance Maschmeyer 🇨🇦 #Olympics #TeamCanada,” she added in the caption.
The dorm room itself appeared relatively plain, with only Team Canada blankets and pillows on the beds, the athletes’ name plates and an Olympic schedule on the wall. Maple leaf decals adorned the room’s window.
“Why is it giving college dorm vibes in there,” one fan wrote in the comments.
“Everytime i see lodging for the olympics i am blown away by the standards that they keep y’all in,” another added. “How do you even recover between rounds???”
Nurse is making her third Olympic appearance after helping Canada secure the Silver medal in 2018 and the Gold in 2022.
American sports fans may already be familiar with her family, which includes professional football, basketball and hockey players. Nurse’s cousins are Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse and Chicago Sky guard Kia Nurse. Her uncles are Philadelphia Eagles legend Donovan McNabb and former Canadian Football League player Richard Nurse.
Since professional athleticism clearly runs in the family, it’s no wonder that when Sarah watched the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, she knew she one day participate in the games herself.
“I had goals to make Team Ontario and Team Canada, and as I continued to progress, playing against older players, I kind of thought, ‘Maybe I could actually do something with this sport,’” she told SportsNet in a story published Sunday, February 1. “Because I’d been playing against older players for a pretty long time, so when I’d get with my own age group, I felt really confident in my abilities.”
Sixteen years later, Sarah made her Olympic debut, scoring her first Olympic goal in a preliminary round game against the United States.
“It gave me the confidence that I really did belong,” Sarah recalled. “That I was one of the best players in this country, and one of the best players in the world. … To go to an Olympic Games, and score a goal against Team USA, my first Olympic goal, I’ll never forget that. … It was like, ‘No, you actually belong here. You don’t look out of place. And you should really own that.’
“I think that really carried me through the next four years,” she added.














