U.S. hockey defender Laila Edwards became the first Black American to win a medal in Olympic Ice Hockey in Thursday’s gold-clinching win over Canada with her family watching from the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, Italy.
The 22-year-old Edwards had 14 family and friends — including her parents, grandmother, aunt, cousin and older brother — in the stands due in part to a generous $10,000 donation from Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and retired Super Bowl champion center Jason Kelce.
The brothers’ donation — made anonymously — went through a GoFundMe donation page started by her father, Robert Edwards, entitled, “Send Laila’s Family to the Olympics to Cheer Her On!”
Robert set a goal of $50,000 so they wouldn’t have to choose between a ticket to one of her games and paying the electric bill back in Cleveland Heights, Ohio — the fabled hometown of the Kelces.
The fundraiser made it possible for 10 family members and four friends to travel from the U.S. to Italy for her Olympic debut, while others paid their own way.
“We had to start talking about how to get money,” her mother Charone Gray-Edwards said, according to the Associated Press. “Who would go? How would we afford it?”
They were only able to afford to pay for two people to travel to Milan.
“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.’”
Travis and Jason grew up in Cleveland Heights and have been fans of Edwards since 2023, when she became the first Black player to make the U.S. senior women’s national team.
They also shouted her out on their “New Heights” podcast.
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Jason and his wife, Kylie, were in the stands for Thursday’s gold medal game between the United States and Canada.
The couple also cheered on the U.S. team during their 5-0 win over Sweden on Monday.
Travis reached out to Edwards to share some advice ahead of her Olympics debut at the 2026 Milan-Cortina games.
“He was just saying, everyone’s got my back. He’s rooting for me,” she said, per the AP. “They didn’t have to do that, but they did. And I’m really grateful.”
Edwards had an assist for the first of the two goals that would secure Team USA’s thrilling 2-1 overtime win for gold.
It’s just the third time in Olympic history that Team USA has won gold in Women’s Hockey, each time over rival Canada.