Sini Karjalainen could have played ice hockey closer to home.
She could have stayed in Finland, where she was born. Sweden, with its elite women’s league, was a nearby proving ground. To Karjalainen, though, the most direct route to her goal — a place on Finland’s Olympic roster — ran through the University of Vermont, thousands of miles away.
Many of the world’s most athletically gifted women are following similar paths.