The athlete recently helped Team USA’s women’s ice hockey team win a gold medal during the 2026 Winter Olympics

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• Hilary Knight opens up about her ice hockey career and plans for retirement in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
• “My whole thing is that I have to continue to love what I do, I have to have an impact, and I have to do it in a way that is authentic to me,” the athlete said
• Knight recently helped Team USA’s women’s ice hockey team win a gold medal during the 2026 Winter Olympics

Hilary Knight isn’t ready to hang up her ice skates just yet.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE during Flavor Flav’s SHE Weekend at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas in July, the athlete, 37, opened up about where she is at currently in her ice hockey career — and when she knows she will be ready to retire from the sport.

Following the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan — where Team USA’s women’s ice hockey team won a gold medal — captain Knight said, “My whole thing is that I have to continue to love what I do, I have to have an impact, and I have to do it in a way that is authentic to me.”

“If those three things are being fulfilled, who knows?” she continued. “I was able to put it all in line and sew the entire experience up, and I’m really grateful for that.”

Added Knight: “I get a little more misty-eyed because we didn’t have friends and family at the previous Games, and then we did. To share that experience again was so special, [because] with the absence of it before, you realize how much it means.”

Knight confirmed in 2025 that the Milan Games would be her final appearance competing for Team USA.

“It’s time,” she previously told USA Today. “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,” Knight continued to the outlet, adding: “I can go out when I’d like to be done. That is such a privilege that only a handful of competitors get.”

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Knight currently continues her ice hockey career with the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

She most recently joined PWHL Detroit ahead of the 2026–2027 season, signing a two-year contract extension with the team through the 2028–2029 season.

In years past, Knight has also played for teams across the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL).

Looking back at her successful sports career, Knight told PEOPLE at Flavor Flav’s SHE Weekend — which was made possible through a partnership with MGM Resorts International and Dove for its #KeepHerConfident initiative — that one key ideology stands out.

“Honestly, standing up more times than I got knocked down. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

“There are so many things we go through as women athletes that are difficult, just by design, and because of where women’s sports are right now,” continued Knight.

“We’re trying to reduce and eliminate barriers and create more spaces for us, with more equitable support,” she further explained.

Knight added that what she is currently most “proud of” as a star athlete is “continuing to show up and trying to make the sport better.”

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