A Barista bags Olympic bronze

Switzerland’s women may be taking home a bronze medal from the Sochi Olympics after their dramatic 4-3 comeback victory over Sweden yesterday, but a coffee shop in America’s capital city will be celebrating for weeks to come.

Jessica Lutz scored the go-ahead goal in the third period to put the Swiss 3-2 up. It was the third of a blistering Swiss spell that saw the ladies in red score four unanswered goals. After her Olympic heroics she will return to her day job as a barista with a bronze medal draped around her neck.

Lutz works at The Coffee Bar in Washington D.C – and for a while, a little pocket of the United States’ capital switched allegiance to cheer on one of their own. 

OMG JESSICA GOT THE BRONZE MEDAL!! Go Jess and Swiss Women’s ice hockey!!! http://t.co/nWoC4ZiAnn

— The Coffee Bar (@thecoffeebardc) February 20, 2014

A Rockville native, Lutz holds dual Swiss and American citizenship and spent some of her formative years in the landlocked European country. But she headed back in order to secure her eligibility – Players living outside of Switzerland must have competed in at least two seasons playing in their domestic league.

The former University of Connecticut Husky therefore spent a few years playing for EV Bomo Thun before relocating back to America where she mixes her job in a coffee shop with training, and competing, generally as the only female, in local leagues.   

Speaking after the victory, the newly crowned Olympic medallist said on the game and her goal; ‘It’s an unbelievable feeling. It was probably the craziest game I’ve ever played in…I couldn’t control my excitement but the coach [kept] telling us to stay calm and concentrate. I still can’t believe what happened’

The result handed Switzerland their first hockey medal since 1948 when the men’s team took bronze on home ice.

In order to celebrate the accomplishments of a member of their staff, The Coffee Bar have created a number of special Olympic drinks that are sure to be signature concoctions in the D.C coffee house.

‘It’s fun. It’s a little bit nerdy,’ Lutz began as she talked about her main job, ‘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.’

We suspect that there might be a Sochi based bit of latte art on the menu the next time there is a gathering of the baristas. Or, perhaps, an iced coffee could win the honours.

picture: kenyee (Flickr), used under Creative Commons