A Black woman is making Olympic history for the USA’s women’s ice hockey team.
At 21 years old, Laila Edwards will be joining the national team at this year’s Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina, becoming the first Black woman to do so.
A native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Edwards’ career on the ice began as just a toddler. She first started figure skating at three-years-old, switching to hockey at five, and said she had to play on boys’ teams since there weren’t programs for girls where she lived. Eventually, she began a more serious relationship with the sport in the eighth grade when she moved from Ohio to New York to play for an elite program at Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester.
She is currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin, playing for both the school’s and the national women’s hockey teams. The official Olympic website called her a “rare two-way player who can contribute in both defense and as a forward.”
Speaking on her unique identity in the sport, she wrote in an essay for Wisconsin’s “Forging Firsts” series about how she always tried to “blend in” but “always stood out” as a girl in the sport playing with boys, and later on as the only Black woman on her team.
“I assumed this would go away when I started playing on an all-girls team at the boarding school, but it didn’t,” she wrote. “While I loved my team, there were moments – like when they shared makeup routines – that highlighted my difference; none of the products they used matched my skin tone. Early on, all of this made it challenging for me to find myself and who I was comfortable being.”
She wrote that even with her accomplishments, sometimes she worries that her “identity might overshadow everything else.”
“Will others see the sacrifices and dedication that got me here?” she wrote. “Will they understand the discipline demanded to attend 5am practices or the courage required to leave my loved ones to pursue my passion?”
At a young age, Edwards has already broken barriers. She was just 19-years-old when she became the first Black woman to join the US women’s hockey team. She went on to win the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Women’s World Championship that same season. At 20, she became the youngest American to win the Most Valuable Player award at the women’s hockey world championships.
