Alev Kelter Went From National Team Hockey Player To Olympic Rugby Player

Alev Kelter is a rare two-sport athlete where she’s reached the pinnacle of her sport. That should reach sports, plural.

In 2008 and 2009, Kelter won back-to-back gold medals as a member of Team USA at the U-18 World Championships playing hockey. At the 2009 tournament she led all defenders in scoring and was named the tournament’s Best Defender. Two years later, Alev Kelter won an NCAA national championship as a member of the University of Wisconsin.

Flash forward 11 years after she hung up her skates following her NCAA career, and Alev Kelter is again competing at the peak of her sport, although the sport is now Rugby 7s, and the stage is the 2024 Paris Olympics.

She’d dreamed it would be hockey, trying out for USA’s Olympic hockey roster prior to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but she was cut.

“I had time and the ability to really refocus on the macro lens of my purpose,” Alev said in an interview with the NCAA. “That is to use my platform and to inspire people to be active, to follow their passions, and to not be afraid of the word ‘no.'”

While it was a ‘no’ for hockey, Alev Kelter soon found herself saying ‘yes’ to another sport, rugby. Less than a month after being cut by Team USA’s hockey team, Kelter got a call from USA’s national rugby coach Ric Suggitt, asking her to try the sport. When she attended camp in 2014, it was love at first try.

Only two years later, Kelter became an Olympian representing Team USA’s Rugby 7s team at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil where Kelter and USA would finish 5th. She again represented USA at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 where USA finished 6th.

“(In hockey) I was very, you know, focused on the statistics, on being the best player statistically, plus-minus average,” Alev reflected. “I put a lot of my identity in sport and my performance. So if we didn’t play well, I felt pretty bad, physically and also mentally.”

“Rugby inspired me to say yes again, to try again, to be inspired to do that. Each day, being around these women in rugby, they encourage me to pursue that purpose.”