Sean Neumann has more than a decade of experience working as a reporter, with a focus on sports and entertainment news.
The 2026 Winter Olympics will be the fifth time U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight has suited up for Team USA on the world’s biggest sporting stage. And each time, the hockey star reflects on how grateful she is that her parents enabled her to get there.
“Honestly, there’s some sacrifices I don’t even know [they’ve made for me],” Knight, 36, tells PEOPLE about her mother Cynthia and father James. “The number of family events that I’ve missed, the countless hours of warming up the car so we can get in our pajamas and go learn how to skate early mornings before school, the tournaments, all the travel, and just the financial commitment. I mean, there’s so many things that they had to sacrifice for me to continue to be able to live my dream on this level.”
Night discovered hockey as a young girl after her family moved from the East Coast to Chicago and began looking for some new hobbies. Once Cynthia put a hockey stick in her daughter’s hands, she seemed to never let go.
Knight, who played college hockey at the University of Wisconsin, debuted at the Olympics when she was 20 years old. She told PEOPLE in 2022 that she dreamt of playing at the Winter Games when she was 7, years before women’s ice hockey was even included in the Olympics as a competitive sport. Next month, the PWHL star will become the first U.S. hockey player to ever compete at five Olympic events – with the chance to pick up her fifth straight medal in the sport.
Since women’s hockey was introduced at the 1998 Olympics, six out of the seven gold medal games have been between the U.S. and Canada, including all four Knight has been a part of dating back to Vancouver in 2010.
Knight says her parents and three younger brothers will be in Italy cheering her on as she and her U.S. teammates seek revenge on their Canadian counterparts and reclaim the gold medal for the first time since the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
“They’re excited that the Olympics are open again, and they can go watch in person and be there to cheer us all on, which is really exciting,” Knight says.
Fans weren’t allowed to attend the 2022 Beijing Games due to the COVID pandemic, meaning Knight’s family will be making their first Olympic trip since the South Korea games, where Knight and Team USA took home a gold medal.
Ahead of those games, Cynthia told her local TV station that as an Olympic parent, you have to “take in all you can” while at the Winter Games.
“You have to go and embrace the experience and really have fun,” Cynthia told the outlet about traveling to see her daughter represent Team USA. “It’s just being there, seeing her face and giving her a hug. Just being present and supportive.”
And Knight tells PEOPLE she couldn’t agree more.
“Talking to your parents through a TV screen after a game is very different than having that hug after a game that you’re so used to,” the hockey star says. “I’m really looking forward to the family aspect, the support [of them] being there.”
