Hilary Knight, the face of U.S. women’s hockey, is preparing to make the 2026 Milan Winter Games her fifth and final Olympics, she told USA Today on Tuesday.
“It’s time,” Knight was quoted as saying.
“I have grown up in this program and it’s just given me so much. I’m at peace. I just have this feeling that it’s time,” she added. “And I’m grateful that — hopefully I can stay healthy and everything — I can go out when I’d like to be done. That is such a privilege that only a handful of competitors get.”
The decision comes as Knight turns 36 in July, while entering her 20th year with the national team since making her debut in the 2006 Four Nations Cup tournament as a 17-year-old.
Over that time, Knight has become one of her sport’s most decorated and dominant players, including being named the winner of the IIHF’s inaugural Female Player of the Year award in 2023.
Last month, she led the U.S. with nine points in winning her 10th gold medal at the world championships, a tournament in which Knights holds the career record for most goals, assists and points. At the Olympics, Knight won gold at the 2018 Games in South Korea along with three silvers.
And she’s coming off a PWHL season in which the Boston Fleet captain finished tied for the league lead with 29 points (15 goals, 14 assists) in 30 games.
Though she’s retiring from international play, Knight said she intends to continue her PWHL career in a league she played a role in helping launch in the summer of 2023.
The six-team privately funded league surpassed the 1 million attendance mark this past season and last month announced it was adding expansion teams in Seattle and Vancouver for the start of its third season.
Knight’s impact on hockey also included her being at the forefront of the U.S. players’ threat to boycott the 2017 world championships on home soil, successfully achieving their bid for better pay and more equitable treatment from USA Hockey.
“I understood what the sport gave me and I wanted to give that to other people. I wanted other people to have the same opportunities that I had,” Knight said. “Obviously there’s tons of work that always needs to be done, but I think we now have a career path.”
