VANCOUVER, British Columbia — With a full-time job at the Vancouver Police Department, Meghan Agosta could easily have decided to retire from hockey this year, at age 31. Instead Agosta, a star forward on the Canadian national team, remains determined to return for her fifth Winter Olympics, in Beijing in 2022.

“We were roommates at the Olympics, and I said to her: ‘How does it feel? Is this going to be your last?’ ” said Laura Fortino, a defender who made the most recent Olympic all-star team at the Pyeongchang Games in February. “She looked at me dead straight in the face and said: ‘You know what? I’m not ready. This is not my last.’

“Knowing Gus, she is so determined. I know she will come back and play in Beijing.”

Agosta, who has three Olympic gold medals, took the last shootout shot in the final against the United States in South Korea. When the American goalie Maddie Rooney stopped the five-hole attempt, it ended Canada’s reign as the four-time champion and gave the United States its first title since the inaugural Olympic women’s hockey tournament in 1998.

Despite her ultracompetitive nature, Agosta handled the defeat with the kind of composure required in her law enforcement career in Vancouver, where she regularly faces life-or-death situations.