MILAN — It pays to be the power couple of the Winter Olympics.
In 2024, when Brittany Bowe and Hilary Knight were leaving their home in Salt Lake City to make a cross-country drive to Boston, they got only about 20 minutes outside of Park City, Utah, before getting pulled over for the tint on Knight’s windows. The captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team explained she was on the way to her professional team in Boston with Bowe, an Olympic speedskater.
They got off with a warning.
“You gotta throw the card out there sometimes,” Bowe said with a hearty laugh.
In their fifth and fourth Olympic appearances, respectively, Knight and Bowe return for their Olympic finales side by side hoping to put a golden flourish on their careers.
Knight, 36, and Bowe, 37, have nine combined Olympic appearances and six Olympic medals. Bowe, who races in the women’s 500 meters on Sunday, has Olympic bronze medals in the team pursuit and the 1,000 meters and holds the world record in her signature distance. Knight, who powered the United States into Monday’s Olympic semifinal, is one of the most accomplished female hockey players in the world: an Olympic gold medal, three Olympic silvers and 10 world championship medals. She has the most Olympic appearances for any U.S. hockey player and is tied for the U.S. record for Olympic goals with 14. That doesn’t even include her work in the founding of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
But the intimidating resume didn’t match the soft-spoken athlete who asked to join Bowe on daily walks in the Beijing Olympic village in 2022.
“She’s Captain America,” Bowe said, puffing out her chest and sitting up straighter. “Hockey player. … Then when we started to talk, [she was] very soft, very gentle, very quiet. And here I am just like, full force all the time.”
The gregarious Bowe has been a star in the small speedskating world since she set her first world record in 2013. The former Division I basketball player who transitioned from inline skating to speedskating in 2010 still holds the 1,000-meter world record she set in 2019 (1 minute, 11.61 seconds). Her speed isn’t limited to the oval, Bowe said. She can even beat Knight in a race on hockey skates.
U.S. forward Hilary Knight warms up before a victory over Canada at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Feb. 10.
(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
“As long as it is one direction,” she clarified. “I cannot stop. I cannot turn right.”
Knight has tried long track speed skates, Bowe said, but the length, which ranges from 16 to 19 inches, made her feel as if she would cut her ankles with the razor-sharp blades. She wants to try again. But Knight quickly squashed any attempts at trying to get her into the racing suit.
“It’s really incredible when you put two different sports side by side and see how they are similar and how they’re different as well,” Knight said. “But it’s been really interesting to see her sport and how amazing she is.”
The two U.S. stars had crossed paths briefly at Olympic events, but never spent significant time with each other until Beijing, where strict pandemic protocols made daily walks a romantic luxury. Four years later, in a social media video, Knight said Bowe was her “favorite Olympian.” Fans swooned over the wholesome answer.
“One thing that I admire most about Britt and her preparation for her sport is how diligent she is,” Knight said. “She’s so intentional, thoughtful in preparation, and it’s something that I hope has rubbed off on me in the right way.”
Brittany Bowe skates during the women’s 1,000 meters at the Milan-Cortina Olympics on Feb. 9.
(Ben Curtis / Associated Press)
After four Olympic cycles, Bowe is ready to walk away after Milan-Cortina. She quietly knew the 2026 Games would be her last following Beijing. Knight announced in 2025 that these would be her last Games, although she intends to keep playing in the PWHL. The retirement decisions were not made in tandem, Bowe said. She simply knew it was time.
Now she can enjoy her Olympic victory lap.
“Just as much excitement for sure, anytime I get an opportunity to represent the United States of America is an honor,” said Bowe, who finished fourth in the 1,000 meters in Milan already. “Being more seasoned and being able to reflect on my journey while I’m still in it is something that’s very, very different.”
The Milan-Cortina Games are the most widespread in history, with sports scattered across seven zones and athletes living in six Olympic villages. Playing two ice sports, Knight and Bowe are at least both competing in Milan. Knight and the U.S. hockey team opened its competition at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena, just across the street from the Milano Speed Skating Stadium. Bowe was in the stands for the United States’ Olympic opener against Czechia when Knight scored in the second period of the 5-1 rout.
Once so consumed by her races during the Olympics, Bowe said getting to watch and cheer for Knight has been a welcome escape from her own preparation and stress. But Bowe isn’t resting completely. She said she gets exhausted from cheering at hockey games. It could present a problem for the potential gold medal hockey game in Milan on Feb. 19.
Bowe races in her Olympic finale in the 1,500 meters the next day.
“I am just really torn what to do with that,” Bowe said. … “I’m kind of sad it might have to be watching on TV from from the village, but we’ll see.”
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