TURIN, Italy - When Molly Engstrom made the U.S. Olympic women's hockey team, it was the biggest thing to happen to Siren, Wis., since an F3 tornado shattered the night of June 19, 2001, bringing an unfortunate 15 minutes of fame to the one-stoplight town.

Tornadoes and Olympians are rare sights in Siren (pop: 1,016), where the big event this weekend was the Rotary Club's inaugural 18-hole ice golf tournament on Crooked Lake.

In fact, Engstrom's Olympic debut was such a big deal that the village president flew to Italy for the occasion.

OK, so the village president happens to be Rick Engstrom, Molly's father.

"We joke around that I'm the mayor," he said. "But, yes, I'm the guy in charge. I sign stuff. I run meetings. You know, typical municipal stuff."

All of Siren has gotten behind Molly, who is described by the Burnett County Sentinel as the area's "first D-1 athlete to make it big other than major-league pitcher Jarrod Washburn of Webster."

According to Tania McKnight - who works for the police department but answered the phone at the village hall because the clerk was out to lunch - there has been a "Molly Day" at the high school and a lot of kids are wearing Engstrom's No. 9 USA Hockey and University of Wisconsin jerseys.

"It's unbelievable," Rick Engstrom said. "If you drive through town, there's not a business that doesn't have a sign that says, 'Go, Molly' or 'Good luck, Molly' in the window."

Joe Zirngibl, the principal of Siren Junior-Senior High, said three trophy cases in the school were devoted to Engstrom and a digital projection TV was set up in the auditorium so students could watch her games in Turin.

"It's awesome," Molly Engstrom said of the support at home. "When you go through tryouts and you make the team, you're wrapped up in the moment. But once you step back and see how many lives you're impacting and how many people look up to you and how big of a deal it is, it's really cool to be in that position."

However, it wasn't cool to be in the position Engstrom and the U.S. women were in after their shocking upset loss to Sweden in the Olympic semifinals on Saturday. It was the Americans' first loss to a team other than Canada in international play.

"I don't know if we've gotten over it," Engstrom said. "I think the reality has sort of set in."

The United States faces Finland for the bronze medal Monday.

Engstrom is taking nothing for granted, especially after suffering a broken bone in her ankle just days before the team left for Italy.

"It happened in a scrimmage back in Lake Placid (N.Y.)," she said. "We were scrimmaging some boys and I was taking a one-on-one and he fired (the puck) right into my ankle. It's basically a fracture in my bone."

There was discussion about sending Engstrom home shortly after the team arrived in Turin on Feb. 5. She didn't attend the opening ceremony because she didn't want to be sore and stiff the next day, which might have encouraged the coaches to send her packing.

"Here she is at her first Olympics and she's sitting in her room rehabbing while everyone else is enjoying the opening ceremony," Rick Engstrom said. "I said, 'Molly, what do you want to do?' She said, 'I came here to skate, dad. I want to play.' "

The 22-year-old Engstrom, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound defenseman, has played but it hasn't been easy. She has been in the training room "every two hours since we got here" and is taking painkillers to get through games and practices.

"She's a tough kid," her father said. "She's determined. That's the kind of personality you have to have to get here."

When Engstrom showed up on the University of Wisconsin campus in the fall of 2001, few people would have guessed she would someday be an Olympian. She had left Siren after her sophomore year in search of better competition and had graduated from Culver (Ind.) Academy.

She was big and strong but needed plenty of polish.

"She came from a small, little town," said UW coach Mark Johnson, a member of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team. "I don't think when she was a freshman she thought she'd ever compete at the Olympic Games."

Johnson said Engstrom was able to bridge the gap from college player to Olympian because of her work ethic and her natural athletic ability.

In Siren, Engstrom had been "joined at the hip" with childhood buddy Gerrad Douglas. In the summer they played baseball, fished or built bike trails in the woods. On autumn afternoons they tossed a football and in the winter they played in youth hockey leagues in nearby Webster or Grantsburg.

Engstrom could do everything the boys could do, and sometimes better.

"She's naturally strong," Johnson said. "She has natural ability and hand-eye coordination. Give her a basketball and she shoots it like a guy. In golf, she shoots in the 70s.

"She's very strong for a female hockey player. When she shoots the puck she looks like a guy because she's got great velocity. She developed into a power point play person for us."

Engstrom played in 140 games for the Badgers and in four years totaled 28 goals and 57 assists. She was named defensive player of the year in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association as a junior and senior and was one of 10 finalists for the 2005 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award.

Later that year, she helped Team USA win the gold medal in the International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship. The U.S. beat Canada, 1-0, in a shootout in the final.

Team USA was headed for another showdown with Canada in Turin until the Swedes pulled their gigantic upset. The U.S. had gone into the game with a 25-0-0 record against Sweden in international tournaments.

Engstrom has managed to put the stinging defeat in perspective.

"It's so disappointing but the fact of the matter is we have to go out and win a medal," she said. "We still have an opportunity to go get an Olympic medal. Think about the millions of people who never get that opportunity, never even get the opportunity to be here.

"Just being here is amazing."

When you're from Siren, Wis., just being anywhere is amazing. Being an Olympian is priceless.