Can you believe that the Winter Olympics kick off in Beijing at the beginning of next month? Crazy, right? All of the Olympic teams are preparing including the USA Women's Hockey Team. And actually, they're getting ready for their trip to the Olympics right here in Minnesota.

The USA Women's Hockey Team selected a facility in Blaine, Minnesota as their home base until they leave for Beijing on the 27th, according to MinnPost. But why Blaine?

The women's hockey team has been moving around quite a bit lately. They were based in Boston for the 2014 Olympics, Tampa for the 2018 Olympics, and now they're back in Blaine thanks to Katie Million who is the new USA Hockey women’s program director. She told MinnPost that when she toured the place in Blaine she said '"my God, this is awesome, why are we not utilizing this?'"

Get our free mobile app

After some renovations, Blaine is now the main spot for the USA Women's Hockey Team where they'll get ready to compete next month. There are murals of past gold medalists and nameplates of all US hockey Olympians.

This Blaine facility has been used in the past but it has obviously been a few years. So they already had the space and the new program director loved the space, those are some of the reasons why they decided to come to Blaine. But also because the new program director lives in the Twin Cities and didn't want to move to the USA Hockey headquarters in Colorado Spring, according to MinnPost. There are also many players from Minnesota and Minnesota has all of the resources they need.

LOOK: 20 Fascinating Photos From the First Modern Olympic Games in 1896

To celebrate the history of international sports cooperation, Stacker took a look back at that groundbreaking event in Athens, when the modern Olympics were born in 1896. Keep reading to learn more about the athletes, spectators, and sports at that iconic event.

More From KRFO-FM