The U.S. women's hockey team won the gold medal at the Milan Olympics after an OT win over Canada. One of the players who led them to victory was Laila Edwards, who became the first black woman to play for Team USA.
Edwards journey to Milan was in part due to the generosity of her fellow Cleveland Heights residents, Jason and Travis Kelce, per Stefanie Dazio and Annie Risemberg of The Huffington Post. Her father, Robert Edwards, had set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for family and friends to travel to Milan.
The title was “Send Laila’s Family to the Olympics to Cheer Her On!” with the goal of $50,000.
“There’s a lot of ups and downs in playing hockey at this high level and so she’s going to need somebody there,” her father said. “So I was like, ‘Well, pride be damned: we’re going to do a fundraiser.’
Donations came in, but the Kelce Brothers provided the biggest donation, $10,000 to be exact. That enabled the page to raise $61,000 in total.
“As she comes in, she’s looking around,” her grandmother, Ernestine Gray, told The Associated Press. “Then I say, ‘I won’t do anything to distract her.’ Then she did see me and I wave to her and then she waved back.”
Her mother, Charone Gray-Edwards, had to contemplate how to use the money and who could travel.
“We had to start talking about how to get money,” Gray-Edwards said. “Who would go? How would we afford it?”
The Kelce Brothers shouted out Edwards during an episode of their New Heights podcast.



![[US, Mexico & Canada customers only] Jan 31, 2026; Anterselva Di Mezzo, ITALY; A general view of the Olympic rings near Anterselva di Sopra (Antholz Obertal), which will host the biathlon competition at the Sudtirol Arena Alto Adige in preparation for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Mandatory Credit: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters via Imagn Images](https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/A-general-view-of-the-Olympic-rings-near-Anterselva-di-Sopra-which-will-host-the-biathlon-competition-at-the-Sudtirol-Arena-Alto-Adige-in-preparation-for-the-Milano-Cortina-2026-Olympic-Winter-Games.jpg?w=200&quality=90)
















