Hilary Knight, Team USA’s north star, chases one more Olympic hockey gold

The five-time Olympian leads a young US team into Milan after nearly two decades at the vanguard of women's hockey's rise and transformation

For nearly two decades, Hilary Knight has been the heartbeat of USA women's ice hockey - the constant through gold-medal ecstasy and silver-medal heartbreaks, coaching changes, domestic league collapses and the sport's long, uneven push toward professional stability. Now, at 36, she's arrived in Milan chasing one more Olympic gold before bringing down the curtain on one of the most influential careers the game has known.

The Olympic women's hockey tournament opens on Thursday with the United States bringing one of their youngest and fastest teams in years - and their longest-tenured player in the captain's sweater. Only 11 players return from the team that won silver in Beijing four years ago. Seven are still in college. Many developed inside a professional structure that did not exist for most of Knight's career, shaped by the emergence of the Professional Women's Hockey League and the broader surge in investment across women's sports.