A Fast-Moving Sport Slogs Through Two-Nation Dominance

While teams from Europe have made great strides, there was little question that the gold medal in women’s hockey would go to the United States or Canada. Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBEIJING — Andrea Braendli, a Swiss goaltender, had no delusions of an Olympic gold medal.

“If we play for a gold medal,” she said ahead of the Beijing Games, “it’s going to be a miracle on ice.”

Her assessment was as cleareyed as any about the women’s hockey tournament. For all of the talk about, and hope for, parity in women’s hockey, the tournament will conclude like all but one other at an Olympics: with Canada and the United States dueling for gold, and two others — this time, Finland and…