STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

She was ripping down the streets on her roller skates at 3. She ran NASTAR races at 4. And she was competing on a traveling hockey team at 6.

Now, at 28, Hilary Knight is the face of U.S. women’s hockey and captain of a team that’s determined to capture the gold medal that eluded them with just 55 seconds left in regulation play during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

“She’s always been determined. It’s in her DNA,” said Hilary’s mother Cynthia Knight, director of development for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. “People always congratulate me on her successes, and I say, ‘I didn’t do anything.’ When I look at all these athletes, I find it’s in their DNA.”

Knight might have been an alpine ski racer challenging Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin had her family remained in the Bay Area. She hailed from a family of serious skiers—her cousin Chip Knight is a three-time Olympian, National and World Junior champion.

And when she began running the NASTAR races at 4 she was in them to win medals.

But her father Jim moved the family to the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest when she was 5 and so her mother signed Hilary and her three younger brothers up for hockey.

“I had four kids in five years and I had to keep everyone busy,” said Cynthia. “The computer age was just starting and two of my boys didn’t like to read, so sports became the go-to.”

Young Hilary, always the competitor, was enamored with the big pads and caged hockey helmets.

“I wanted her to do ballet but, really, I thought the way she took to hockey was great,” said Cynthia. “I’m athletically oriented—I played field hockey at Dartmouth. And all four of our kids have always been very competitive with each other. They always wanted to be the first to reach the top of the hill or to see who could shoot the most goals.”

Hilary played on boy’s teams while growing up. With her short hair, she was considered one of the boys—so much so that when her teammate asked if “he” could spend the night, his mother replied, “Charles, it’s a she.”

Spurred on by her family’s commitment to a good education, Hilary considered Community School in Sun Valley but ended up at Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Connecticut that had a stellar hockey program.

As soon as she reached one goal, she created new goals, always pushing, always daring to be bold.

It was a foregone conclusion for Hilary that one day she would compete in the Olympics. She is a three-peat Olympian, having played on women’s teams that earned hard-fought silver medals behind Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

“She put her puck under her pillow when she was 5 and told her grandmother, ‘I’m going to the Olympics.’ And she wrote a book in second grade about a little girl with a magical hockey stick who went to the Olympics,” said Cynthia. “That, of course, was her.”

Hilary watched National Hockey League players on TV, trying to emulate their hand and feet work. The Knight kids played rough and tumble shinny—or pick-up hockey—in the long hallway in their home. And Hilary filled their garage with difficult challenges and targets, such as a triangle, to hone her puck control.

It paid off as she began catching the eyes of the hockey world. Four-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero told USA Today, which called Knight one of 10 Olympians to watch, that the teenage Hilary caught her eye the way she jumped first in line, exuding confidence but not cockiness.

Finnish Goaltender Noora Raty called her “the best shot in the world” following the opening game of the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang.

And Mark Johnson, who scored two goals against the Soviets in the “Miracle on Ice” game, said the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Knight boasts several factors that make her dangerous: Her size, strength, speed, stick handling and her ability to beat someone one-on-one.

What’s more, she can take a slap shot and take it down the ice to score—something you don’t see a lot of, said Johnson, who coached Knight in the 2010 Olympics.

Knight has taken a game once known as a man’s sport and stood up for herself and other women hockey players.

She put a stake in the ground last year as she and her teammates threatened to boycott the world championships until they were given equal pay and benefits.

“It was extremely stressful, with lawyers and everything. They had to call their old hockey teams and tell other women players, ‘Please don’t take our places—we’re doing this for future generations,” said Cynthia.

And in January she hit target after target in a quick 11.6 seconds—a feat that would have put her third behind National Hockey League players Brock Boeser and Brian Boyle had women been included in the NHL Skills Accuracy Competition at All Star Weekend in Tampa.

“In just 11 seconds she made people realize that women are just as proficient as men. She moved the dial for women,” said Cynthia, who admits she has learned a lot about her daughter from reading interviews in magazines and newspapers over the years.

“In addition, she is good at recognizing those who come through the line for autographs. She knows that to grow hockey you need to nurture the next generation.”

Knight and her teammates got off to a good start in the 2018 Winter Olympics, beating Finland 3-1 on Sunday for U.S. women’s hockey’s sixth straight opening game win.

Knight played a pivotal role, psyching out the Finnish goaltender before passing the puck to Kendall Coyne, who scored the go-ahead goal at 11:29 of the second period. The Sun Valley forward also passed the puck to Coyne during a power-play goal that made it 2-1.

The Americans will play Canada at 8:10 p.m. Mountain Time on Feb. 14, with the gold medal game at 9:10 p.m. Mountain Time on Feb. 21.

Jim and Cynthia Knight are there, along with their sons James Jr. Remy and Will.

“One of Hilary’s teammates Hannah Brand has an adopted sister playing on the South Korean team. Isn’t that fun for those parents to have two kids playing on different teams!” Cynthia enthused.

The Americans squandered a 2-0 lead in the final in 2014 to lose to Canada in overtime, with Cynthia Knight providing the anguished look of a hockey mom watching her daughter’s dream of gold slip away as Olympic TV cameras focused on her in the stands.

Hilary told USA Today that the Americans beat themselves in a game that could have gone the other way if the puck had ended up an inch to the right.

“To have the opportunity four years later to potentially right the wrong, so to speak, with a new group of women n the world stage, it’s so exciting. I can’t wait,” she said.

This year’s Hilary is healthy, unlike the 2010 Olympics when she played injured. She came in with 101 goals and 78 assists in 152 games for the U.S. team, the most points of any current player.

 “She’s very loyal about what it means to represent the United States,” said Cynthia. “When she hears the ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ she waits until the last note is played before she bangs her stick on the ground.”

The road hasn’t been easy. Knight missed out on the social life her teen peers had. And even today she avoids parties, preferring not to take a chance that they could get rowdy. When she came home for Christmas, her parents had to put her on the plane on Christmas Day so she could make it back to her team’s hockey camp.

And she’s taken quick and tiring over-and-back trips to places like New Zealand to do photo shoots for such sponsors as VISA, Nike, Red Bull, Chobani and GoPro.

“She’s never had Thanksgiving. She couldn’t attend her grandfather’s funeral. She’s broken her fingers, bones in her feet, even ribs, when pucks have hit her,” said Cynthia.

At the same time, Hilary acknowledged during SVSEF's Olympic Day celebration last summer that she has reaped much from the path she chose as she’s gotten to travel around the world and meet some amazing people.

“When I step onto the ice,” she said, “Everything else melts away.”

It’s too soon to say whether Hilary will go for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

“She’s young enough to do another Olympics, and now that women’s hockey team is on a better footing,  she might continue. It depends on the wear and tear on her body. And, perhaps, if they win gold this time around,” said Cynthia.

She paused a moment, then corrected herself.

“I should say, ‘When they win gold!’ ”