MILAN (AP) — Soon American hockey defender Laila Edwards skates in front of him on the Olympic ice Thursday the gold medal match against Canada she will search the stands for the real MVP: her 91-year-old grandmother.
Their shared ritual was on display during Team USA’s semifinal game on Monday night — made possible only by an outpouring of donations to a GoFundMe campaign, with by far the largest individual contribution coming from the NFL brother tandem and hometown allies Travis and Jason Kelce.
“When she comes in, she looks around,” her grandmother, Ernestine Gray, told The Associated Press. “Then I say, ‘I won’t do anything to distract her.’ Then she saw me and I waved at her and then she waved back.”
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Edwards, the first Black female hockey player to represent the U.S. at the Olympics, has fielded her own team in Milan. The fundraiser allowed ten family members and four friends to travel from the US to Italy her Olympic debut. Still others paid their own way.
After the match, Edwards told the AP that her family’s presence in Milan “means the world to me.” “They helped me get here and form this team and achieve my dream, so it means a lot,” she said.
‘How could we afford it’
Hours before the puck dropped Monday, the Edwards family was ready.
Edwards’ mother, Charone Gray-Edwards, has strict rules about traveling. She ordered everyone to meet in the hotel lobby 2½ hours before game time, dressed in their best Team USA. They called a van taxi for the large group – including Edwards’ parents, grandmother, aunt, cousin and older brother – and loaded up.
Her parents weren’t sure the whole family would be able to make the trip when she called them a month before the Olympics to say she had been picked for the team. They could have covered the costs for two people, but the entire family roster – all of whom have supported her over the years – would have been far too expensive. And they hadn’t booked early flights or secured cheaper hotel rates for fear of cursing her.
“We had to start talking about how we could get money,” Gray-Edwards said. “Who would go? How could we afford it?”
The family is used to watching her from a distance. When Edwards was 13, she left home to attend Bishop Kearney Selects Academy in Rochester, New York, before transferring to the University of Wisconsin, where she will play her senior season for the top ranked badgers.
The general consensus is that Edwards will be selected in the top three of the Professional Women’s Hockey League draft in June, along with teammate Caroline Harvey of Wisconsin and Abbey Murphy of Minnesota.
Still, Edwards’ Olympic debut was something everyone wanted to see.
Her father, Robert Edwards, started the GoFundMe campaign, titled: “Send Laila’s family to the Olympics to cheer her on!” He set an ambitious goal of $50,000 so they wouldn’t have to choose between a ticket to one of her games and paying the electric bill in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
“There are a lot of ups and downs playing hockey at this high level and that’s why she needs someone there,” her father said. “So I thought, ‘Well, damn pride: we’re going to do a fundraiser.’ ”
‘Queen of Cleveland’
The Kelce brothers grew up in the same town as Edwards. They’ve been fans of hers since 2023, when she became the first Black player to make the U.S. Women’s National Team and gave her a shout-out their popular podcast ‘New Heights’.
The largest donation to GoFundMe was $10,000, from someone who remained anonymous; Edwards has confirmed it came from the Kelces. By early Thursday, the Edwards family had raised more than $61,000.
Additionally, Travis Kelce reached out to provide advice to the ‘Queen of Cleveland’, a nickname her teammates gave her after a U.S.-Canada match played there in November. And Jason Kelce and his wife Kylie were in the stands Monday to cheer on the U.S. team during their 5-0 win over Sweden. Edwards, a forward turned defenderhad an assist.
The generosity of the Kelces and locals is another example of how the close-knit town functions, her parents said, even though their daughter moved away at a young age. Edwards, considered the future face of women’s hockey, has also inspired the black community in Ohio and beyond.
While diversity is reflected in many sports such as football, it has not made a dent in winter sports and there is one very few black athletes at the Milan Cortina Olympic Games. Men’s and women’s hockey worldwide, inclusive in the USremains predominantly white.
“Just to hear all the people of color talking about, ‘I’ve never watched hockey and I’m tuning in,’” Gray-Edwards said. “I’d like to know what the ratings are. Because everyone at home, everyone’s talking about it. All these people are trying to buy jerseys.”
For Gray-Edwards, some of the most meaningful moments were seeing little boys come up to her daughter for an autograph.
“That means they don’t say, ‘Oh, this is a girl who plays hockey.’ They say, ‘This is a good hockey player.’ So it doesn’t matter if she’s black, a woman, she’s a good player,” Gray-Edwards said.
But Gray-Edwards’ fondest memories likely won’t be about the games or the scores — they will come from watching her 91-year-old mother and her 22-year-old daughter together at the rink.
“You can just see them waving at each other. My mom loves to jump and, oh, she just loves it,” Gray-Edwards said.
John Wawrow in Milan contributed to this report.
