Travis and Jason Kelce Help Laila Edwards' Family Attend Her Olympic Debut

It wasn’t easy for Laila Edwards’ parents, missing much of their daughter’s formative years developing into a women’s hockey Olympian away from her roots in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Thanks to an outpouring of donations, including a major push from the hometown NFL brother tandem of Travis and Jason Kelce, they will be making the trip to join Edwards making her Olympic debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, next week.

A GoFundMe drive launched shortly after Edwards was named to the U.S. roster this month had generated more than $59,000 through Wednesday. The amount surpassed the goal of $50,000, and has the Edwardses making plans to bring up to 14 members of their immediate family, from maternal grandmother Ernestine Gray to Laila's nephew Shiloh.

"Oh my goodness," mother Charone Gray-Edwards said this week. "I was going to find words to describe the gratitude and appreciation — but I haven’t yet."

Said father Robert Edwards: "We’re humbled by it."

The significance isn’t lost on Laila Edwards, who left home at 13 to attend the Bishop Kearney Selects Academy in Rochester, New York, before moving on to Wisconsin, where she is completing her senior season for the top-ranked Badgers.

"Obviously, my name’s on the roster, but I feel like my whole family made it to the Olympics," Edwards told The Associated Press during a Zoom call promoting Downy Rinse. "All the sacrifices they’ve made, the things they’ve done to get me here, my parents, my siblings, I’m so grateful,. And for them to get to come and share the experience is going to be really special."

Edwards, who celebrated her 22nd birthday on Sunday, is considered the future face of women’s hockey and will become the first Black female