“Holy shit, it’s real,” Laila Edwards thought in the early afternoon of New Year’s Eve.
For months, the 21-year-old Wisconsin women's hockey superstar flew back-and-forth from Madison to ice rinks across the country in a “try out” process for the U.S. Olympic team. The trips consisted of intense practices and exhibition matches with a tentative 30-player roster of Team USA that would be cut down to 23 by Dec. 31.
Though Edwards played for the national team for years, making the Olympic roster had been her dream and would set her to become the first Black woman to play hockey for the U.S.
That afternoon, Edwards waited eagerly in her team's video room when the phone rang from Team USA’s General Manager, Katie Million, at exactly 1 p.m. It was the phone call that made history — Laila Edwards was now an Olympian.
When Edwards was just 13, she made the difficult decision to move away from home to pursue her hockey career. In fall 2017, she packed her bags into a black Honda CRV and drove to upstate New York with her mother Charone to attend Selects Hockey Academy on a partial scholarship. The choice was tough, but it was also a turning point in her career. It was in New York that Edwards began garnering top prospect attention from Badgers assistant coaches Dan Koch and Jackie Crun. It was also at the academy that she began playing with Caroline Harvey — her best friend, roommate and current teammate on the Badgers and Team USA.
Edwards grew up in the suburban sprawl of Cleveland Heights, Ohio with four siblings — including her older sister Chayla who was a talented hockey player in her own rite, playing for the Badgers from 2019-2024.
“We grew up pretty poor,” Edwards said, but despite hockey being a notoriously expensive sport, her family never hesitated to support her dream. “My family supported me through a lot … I remember we had an outstanding balance here and there,” referencing her time at Selects Hockey Academy. With some additional financial support from anonymous donors, Edwards thrived for five years at the academy, committing to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a full-ride scholarship as a high school freshman and boasting a 97-point season her senior year.
Since becoming a Badger, the defenseman has undoubtedly transformed into a hockey phenom. In 2023, as a 19-year-old sophomore, Laila etched her name into history as the first Black woman to play for the U.S. women’s national hockey team. In 2024 at the IIHF World Championship — the highest level hockey tournament aside from the Olympics — she scored six goals in seven games and was named MVP, becoming the youngest player ever to receive the award at just 20-years-old.
“I kind of barely made it,” she said laughing, “But then I was the MVP at [the tournament] — I think that was the moment it really took off.”
She won two World Championship medals with Team USA: silver in 2024 and gold in 2025. Around this time Edwards also became an official Red Bull athlete, joining the likes of Formula One driver Max Verstappen and X Games gold medalist Zeb Powell. With the Badgers, she helped win her second NCAA Championship and led the league in scoring last season. Edwards was also named as an assistant captain at the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
Since the release of the finalized roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina — which includes three of her Badger teammates — Edwards is adding to her long list of accolades by once again making history as the first Black woman to play hockey at the Olympics for the U.S.
“It was — it still is surreal,” she reflected.
The days that followed the news of her historic position on the Olympic roster were a wild string of press tours and travel. One laborious weekend involved a trip to New York City for an appearance on the Today Show followed by a photoshoot with Architectural Digest at her Madison apartment just two days later. She admitted the interviews can be overwhelming at times, but Edwards appears to handle the surging attention with a seasoned ease.
“Tomorrow I’ll have an interview with CNN and a photoshoot with ESPN right after,” she said casually. “I think it’s so cool. I'm very grateful that they’re taking the time to tell your story, learn about you, and put it out there when they don’t have to.”
But as “cool” as these high-profile interviews may be, Edwards believes they can serve a bigger purpose.
Ever since 2023, when Edwards first joined the U.S. women's national team, she has been working to help minorities and underprivileged communities enjoy the sport she loves. “I think it’s very important for me to use my platform positively to help grow the game and continue to work throughout the community,” she said.
In partnering with USA Hockey, Edwards has visited youth teams around the country to share her story, and for the second year in a row, is working with the Wisconsin Amateur Hockey Association (WAHA) on a program that helps minorities and underprivileged youth get into the sport by covering the cost of equipment and ice-time, as she said they can often cost a “shit-ton of money.”
Through her accomplishments, Edwards has found herself in the unique position of being the representation she felt she never saw at the highest level in the sport while growing up. “Even if you do have the money and all the equipment, you don’t see anyone that looks like you, which is another thing that’s tough,” she said, “And so, I think representation is super important. And I feel like I have the opportunity to be an example of that.”
Edwards is the embodiment of a top athlete whose ambition for greatness is equally rivaled by genuine humility. Her attitude toward success can be best defined by one word: gratitude.
“I’m super grateful. Only a very small percentage of people get to do what I do and so I try to approach every single thing with gratitude and pride,” she said.
And her humility doesn’t stop at the limits of La Bahn arena. On top of a hectic hockey calendar and full-time student schedule, Edwards astonishingly still finds time to work at a local coffee shop to help cover any extra expenses she may have — likely making her one of the only people to have barista and Olympian listed on the same resume.
“I’ve been really valuing doing things outside of hockey, which is maybe odd considering it’s getting more serious,” she smiled, “Because right now hockey’s intense and it means a lot, but I don’t want it to control my life.”
A day in Edwards life begins how you might expect: a 30-minute on-ice warm up, followed by a team workout, another skate later in the day, and a dash of cardio in the gym to top it all off. “It’s always on my mind — how is this going to prepare me to be exceptional [at the Olympics] too? I don’t want to just go there, I want to be great there,” she said.
But her long days of training and Olympic preparation almost always end with friends — hanging out at a cafe, a teammate's apartment or meeting up with her sister to plan their next summer adventure. Of all that she does, the athlete attests a significant amount of her on-ice success to a life of balance. “I want to be as balanced as I can because not everything is about hockey,” she said.
Edwards is not easy to define, and she doesn’t want to be. She will proudly admit that her motivation does not come from how many trophies she wins — though she wins a lot of them — nor from scoring goals and certainly not from media attention. Her motivation is instead found off the ice, by the countless kids who have told her, “I play hockey because of you.”
“I want to be a great player, but I want to be an even better role model and person,” she said.
