MILAN (AP) — As quickly as U.S. hockey defender Laila Edwards skates onto the Olympic ice forward of Thursday’s gold medal sport in opposition to Canada, she is going to scan the stands for the true MVP: Her 91-year-old grandmother.
Their shared ritual was on show at Crew USA’s semifinals sport on Monday night time — solely made potential by way of an outpouring of donations to a GoFundMe drive, with by far the most important particular person contribution coming from NFL brother tandem and hometown allies Travis and Jason Kelce.
“As she is available in, she’s wanting round,” her grandmother, Ernestine Grey, advised The Related Press. “Then I say, ‘I gained’t do something to distract her.’ Then she did see me and I wave to her after which she waved again.”
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Edwards, the primary Black feminine hockey participant to signify the U.S. on the Olympics, has fielded a staff of her personal in Milan. The fundraiser enabled 10 relations and 4 buddies to journey from the U.S. to Italy for her Olympic debut. Nonetheless others paid their very own approach.
After the sport, Edwards advised the AP that her household’s presence in Milan “means the whole lot to me.” “They helped me get right here and make this staff and obtain my dream, so it means so much,” she mentioned.
‘How would we afford it’
Hours earlier than the puck dropped Monday, the Edwards household was prepared.
Edwards’ mom, Charone Grey-Edwards, has strict guidelines about journey. She mandated that everybody meet within the lodge foyer 2½ hours earlier than sport time, dressed of their Crew USA most interesting. They referred to as a taxi van to suit the massive group — together with Edwards’ dad and mom, grandmother, aunt, cousin and older brother — and loaded up.
Her dad and mom weren’t positive the complete household would be capable to make the journey when she referred to as them a month earlier than the Olympics to say she’d been chosen for the staff. They might cowl the prices for 2 folks, however the full household roster — all of whom have supported her through the years — would have been far too costly. They usually hadn’t booked early flights or locked in cheaper lodge charges for worry of jinxing her.
“We needed to begin speaking about easy methods to get cash,” Grey-Edwards mentioned. “Who would go? How would we afford it?”
The household is accustomed to watching her from afar. When Edwards was 13, she left house to attend the Bishop Kearney Selects Academy in Rochester, New York, earlier than shifting on to College of Wisconsin, the place she is taking part in her senior season for the top-ranked Badgers.
The overall consensus is that Edwards shall be chosen within the high three of the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League draft in June, together with Wisconsin teammate Caroline Harvey and Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy.
Nonetheless, Edwards’ Olympic debut was one thing everybody needed to see.
Her father, Robert Edwards, began the GoFundMe drive, entitled: “Ship Laila’s Household to the Olympics to Cheer Her On!” He set an formidable aim of $50,000 so that they wouldn’t have to decide on between a ticket to one in all her video games and paying the electrical invoice again in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
“There’s loads of ups and downs in taking part in hockey at this excessive stage and so she’s going to wish anyone there,” her father mentioned. “So I used to be like, ‘Properly, delight be damned: we’re going to do a fundraiser.’ ”
‘Queen of Cleveland’
The Kelce brothers grew up in the identical city as Edwards. They’ve been followers of hers since 2023, when she grew to become the primary Black participant to make the U.S. senior girls’s nationwide staff, and shouted her out on their standard podcast, “New Heights.”
The highest donation to the GoFundMe was $10,000, from somebody remaining nameless; Edwards has confirmed that it got here from the Kelces. By early Thursday, the Edwards household had raised greater than $61,000.
What’s extra, Travis Kelce reached out to supply recommendation to the “Queen of Cleveland,” a nickname her teammates gave her following a U.S.-Canada sport performed there in November. And Jason Kelce and his spouse, Kylie, had been within the stands Monday to cheer on the U.S. staff throughout their 5-0 win over Sweden. Edwards, a forward-turned-defender, had an help.
Generosity from the Kelces and locals is one other instance of how the tight-knit city operates, her dad and mom mentioned, despite the fact that their daughter moved away at a younger age. Edwards, thought-about the longer term face of girls’s hockey, has additionally impressed the Black neighborhood in Ohio and past.
Whereas variety is mirrored in lots of sports activities comparable to soccer, it hasn’t made a dent in winter sports activities and there are only a few Black athletes within the Milan Cortina Olympic Video games. Males’s and ladies’s hockey globally, together with within the U.S., stays predominantly white.
“Simply to listen to all of the folks of coloration speaking about, ‘I’ve by no means watched hockey earlier than and I’m tuning in,’” Grey-Edwards mentioned. “I might like to know what the rankings are. As a result of everyone at house, everyone is speaking about it. All these individuals are attempting to purchase jerseys.”
For Grey-Edwards, among the most significant moments have been seeing little boys come as much as her daughter for an autograph.
“Which means they’re not like, ‘Oh, it is a lady that performs hockey.’ They’re like, ‘This a superb hockey participant.’ So it doesn’t matter if she’s Black, a lady — she’s a superb participant,” Grey-Edwards mentioned.
However Grey-Edwards’ most treasured reminiscences seemingly gained’t be in regards to the video games or scores — they may stem from watching her 91-year-old mom and her 22-year-old daughter collectively on the rink.
“You possibly can simply see them waving at one another. My mom’s like leaping and, oh, she simply loves it,” Grey-Edwards mentioned.
John Wawrow in Milan contributed to this report.