(ThyBlackMan.com) Italy is hosting the 2026 Winter Olympic Games and while the Winter Olympics generally draws less mainstream interest than the Summer Olympics, there has been a lot of media coverage of the athletes, the performances during the unique winter events, and even controversies including curling. However, the sport that arguably receives the most attention from casual sports fans among the Winter Olympics is hockey. There are high expectations for both the U.S. men’s and U.S. women’s hockey teams to finish in the top three and receive medals. The U.S. women’s hockey team stands out this February because of the history made by Laila Edwards.
Laila Edwards is a two-time national championship senior forward for the Wisconsin Badgers. Her inclusion on the U.S. women’s hockey team for this year’s Winter Olympics set history. When she made her Olympic debut at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games earlier this month, Edwards became the first Black woman to compete for the U.S. women’s ice hockey team. She recorded an assist that same game and on the following game during the Team USA’s 5-0 victory over Canada, she became the first Black woman to score a goal. At just 22 years old, Laila Edwards is considered a future high draft pick for the PWHL, the highest profile women’s professional hockey league in North America.
Hockey has long been considered the most unwelcoming historically to Black people among the five major sports (basketball, baseball, football, soccer, hockey) in the U.S. Despite groups like The Black Girl Hockey Club, it has been difficult to draw in more Black people as participants and fans of the sport. Growing up in Cleveland Heights, Laila Edwards began playing hockey at age 5 and often played on hockey teams as the only girl on the team due to a lack of girl’s hockey teams and leagues. Now as a young adult, Edwards has some awareness of her being on the U.S. women’s national hockey team. “I take a lot of pride in it,” she said. “Just to have the ability to be a role model and hear that people are looking up to me, that’s something I really appreciate.”
Being from Cleveland Heights also links Laila Edwards to the well-known football brothers, the Kelces. Former Philadelphia offensive lineman turned NFL television analyst Jason Kelce and current Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce donated a combined $10,000 to a GoFundMe to help Edwards’s family see her in-person play at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy. It is worth noting that the Kelce brothers did not personally know the Edwards family they just knew that they were from Cleveland Heights. They also shouted out Laila on their podcast “New Heights” prior to making the donation.
Finish story here; 2026 Winter Olympic Games has surprising addition to Black History Month.
