A D.C. barista who had customers and staff of her Northwest coffee shop cheering on the Swiss hockey team was instrumental in securing her Swiss team the bronze medal Thursday.
Jessica Lutz, who went to high school in Maryland and now works as a barista at The Coffee Bar near Logan Circle, scored a go-ahead goal for the Swiss team in the bronze medal game.
The Swiss scored once more after that and upset the Swedish team, 4-3.
It was a stunning result. No Swiss team has won a hockey medal since the men's team won it in 1948, reported NBC Sports' Dan Marrazza. Sweden, on the other hand, has medaled twice before in the relatively short Olympic history of women's hockey.
And it followed a dramatic rally from the Swiss team, which trailed 2-0 going into the third period. The teams had tied by the time Lutz scored to give Switzerland its first lead of the game.
It was her second goal scored in this Olympics.
Lutz' father is Swiss, and she has dual citizenship. She said she's gotten great support for her Olympic effort from her home in D.C.
"I definitely have a lot of friends in D.C. who are cheering for the Swiss team, even though they are American," she said.
Lutz graduated from Washington Christian Academy in Olney, Md., where she was a standout player in soccer and track as well. She played hockey for University of Connecticut Huskies from 2007-10.
And then there's her history with coffee, which stretches back to her youth in Switzerland.
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"Everybody seems to love that I am a barista," she said. "I had my first coffee job in Switzerland before I left, and so I was already a little bit into it.
"It's fun. It's a little bit nerdy, but we do latte art competitions once a month... all the D.C. area baristas get together and see who can do the best latte art design."
