When the U.S. women's hockey team won its third-ever Olympic gold medal, Laila Edwards joined two former NHL stars and current PWHL star Sarah Nurse as the only Black players to win gold in Olympic hockey.
The young players on the USA women's hockey team are already forces to be reckoned with, and they are nowhere near their primes.
Defender Laila Edwards is one of them and, once again, showed she belongs on the Olympic roster while still playing college hockey.
With two goals and six assists for eight points in seven games in her Olympic debut, Edwards finished the tournament tied for third in scoring. She was one of the more relied-upon members of this team, and she put her experience as a forward to use. Arguably, no assist was more important than hers when she recorded the primary helper on Hilary Knight's late equalizer in last Thursday's gold medal game.
When the U.S. triumphed over Canada in the gold medal game, it not only gave the Americans their first gold medal in women's hockey since 2018 and third since 1998, but it also made Edwards just the fourth Black player in Olympic history to claim gold in hockey.
She joins Canadian women's veteran hockey player Sarah Nurse, as well as two former NHL stars, Jarome Iginla and P.K. Subban.
Iginla became the first Black athlete to ever win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics when he recorded three goals and four points for Team Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. He added another in 2010, with five goals and seven points in seven games, including the assist on Sidney Crosby's 'Golden Goal.'
Subban added his name to the honor roll in 2014. He played one game for Team Canada as it captured gold in Sochi.
And Nurse became the first Black player to win gold in women's hockey, doing so at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with a tournament-leading 18 points in seven games. She's been on Team Canada for three Olympics.
While they aren't the first Black players to play in the Olympics, they're among a very exclusive group to reach the pinnacle of success in sports' most prominent international event. Edwards, however, is the first Black woman to play on Team USA in Olympic hockey.
In an era where hockey wants to become more diverse, the continued international success of Edwards, Nurse and others will make people want to keep an eye on this stat for many more years to come.
Watch Avry Lewis-McDougall's video column up above for more.
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