Alaska’s Alev Kelter and Team USA women’s rugby are chasing more than gold at 2024 Olympics

Growing up, Alev Kelter recalled how the Eagle River and Chugiak communities she grew up in came together to support each other year-round, but especially in the winter. She feels a similar level of camaraderie when she plays rugby professionally and for Team USA.

“I learned about being a part of a team from being Alaskan,” she said. “Supporting one another and loving one another, I learned from being an Alaskan. I’m grateful to be separated as an Alaskan because that was my nickname and how I stood out at any national camp or regional camp or development camp. I was always ‘the Alaskan.’ ”

Kelter will be competing in her third Olympic Games later this week in Paris, France, where she hopes to finally earn her first medal and further the growth of women’s rugby domestically and abroad.

She joins cyclist Kristen Faulkner as the two representatives from Alaska taking to the world stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics as members of Team USA.

“There aren’t many words to describe what it means to be an Olympian but to be one of two from Alaska. To me, rugby is tough, it’s rugged (and) it’s inclusive,” she said. “That’s what was modeled in my community back home.”

The Team USA women’s sevens rugby team, which is in Pool C, will take on Japan at 6:30 a.m. Alaska time and Brazil at 10 a.m. Alaska time on July 28 (CNBC, Peacock), and then France at 5:30 a.m. Alaska time on July 29 (CNBC, Peacock). All matches will be available to stream on Peacock and will be broadcast on the USA, CNBC, NBC, or E networks. Placing and quarterfinal rounds will take place on July 29 and the medal round on July 30, with exact times to be determined pending results of qualifying matches.

“It’s an honor to represent everybody in Alaska but especially my Alaska (rugby players) who, back home, I know are training and soaking up the last bits of summer,” Kelter said.

Building on a historic performance at international tune-up

The Team USA women’s sevens rugby squad is heading into the 2024 Games looking like one of the top contenders fresh off a dominant showing at the Pan American Games. They claimed the first gold medal in rugby by a U.S. team in an international game since the men’s team was crowned Olympic champions in 15s rugby 100 years ago in 1924.

“Success can be defined in so many different ways,” Kelter said. “A lot of people chase that gold, but what we’re after is something bigger and something that you can’t really express or have merit on. A gold medal wouldn’t do it justice because it’s the memories, it’s the camaraderie, it’s the culture we’ve built, and that’s all been based on all the women who have come before us.”

Their toughest competition down in Santiago, Chile, where the Pan Am Games were held, was Canada, which the U.S. defeated 19-12 in finals. Kelter believes Canada will be a “force to be reckoned with” if they cross paths with the U.S. again in the Olympics.

In Team USA’s initial pool play to start this year’s Games, they will be going up against Japan, Brazil and France.

“Having France on home soil in the pool play games will give us a full stadium to get ready for the knock-out stages,” Kelter said. “We’re focusing on ourselves and know that momentum can shift at the drop of a hat. We’re mostly focused on being present and doing what needs to be done in that present moment.”

This year’s team mantra has been “anywhere, anytime, anyone,” and it has inspired and propelled them throughout the international competitive season and into the Olympics.

“That’s what we are going to buy into and that’s what we bought into this last campaign,” Kelter said.

The team has been training with the U20 boys team to get different looks and prepare to counter teams with more speed.

“It’s been a wonderful experience and we’re just grateful that when we come back with a medal, they’ll be honored having supported us,” Kelter said.

Coincidentally, the last Team USA rugby team to bring home gold did so in Paris, a fact Kelter sees as a sign that the Americans are long overdue for another champion to be crowned.

“It would mean the world to this program,” she said. “We’d had so many women, especially our 1991 team that won gold (in the World Cup). It would be absolutely unbelievable but also just such a gift to USA Rugby because this is the fastest-growing sport in America, and it would be a testament to all the women that came before us and the men that laid the foundation for us.”

From rookie to seasoned veteran

The 2024 Olympic Games will mark the third of Kelter’s career, and given how she was relatively new to the game when she represented Team USA the first time in 2016 after playing hockey and soccer growing up, her role has shifted over the years with all the experience she has gained.

“My first Olympics, I had just played rugby for about two years, and in rugby terms, you’re really a novice. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m here,’” she said.

At the 2020 Games in Tokyo, she had just come back from having neck fusion and spine fusion procedures but really wanted to work through it and be there for her country, and her teammates had her back.

“The team supported me and rallied around me,” Kelter said. “We went 3-0 in pool play and had a heartbreaker against (Great Britain) and lost in the quarterfinals.”

While she doesn’t have any Olympic medals to show for her previous two trips, Kelter has a good feeling that the third time might just prove to be the charm.

“I don’t have the Olympic rings tattooed on me yet (but) they’re coming,” she said. “I want that to be (a) medal. I want that to be for real. … I have yet to feel that as a team, and this team is the most competitive team I’ve been on in the last 10 years.”

Kelter feels like this year’s team has everything they need to go the distance, from chemistry to their five core team values of “resilience, courage, love, selflessness and work ethic.”

“Every action that we’ve been doing these last four years, six years, eight years, 10 years have been leading up to those five core values,” she said. “Those will guide us as we (look to) medal in Paris.”

The top two teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, and Kelter sees the top competitors for gold as top-ranked Australia, New Zealand, France and Canada.

“To be fair, sevens is such a quick-paced game,” she said. “It’s two seven-minute halves, a 14-minute game, and you play two in a day and anything can happen at any time.”

Kelter believes that deciding a victor will ultimately come down to which team has the “most chemistry, stays the most present (and) supports one another the best.”

“That is who is going to win the gold medal,” she said.

Looking past Paris and into the future

As far as how many more years she plans to continue competing in the sport, Kelter joked about going “until the wheels fall off, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but admitted that she is slowing down a little and will likely have to adapt to a slower-paced version of the sport at some point.

“I can feel my body slowing down a little bit, but it is more so (about) what’s the next chapter going to look like, and it’s still going to be playing rugby,” she said. “Maybe a lot of 15s and transition away from the sevens for a little bit to gear up for the 15s World Cup tournament in England in 2025.”

She will be following her partner, who is also on Team USA, to play with the Loughborough Lightning in the English Premier Rugby league in England.

“I’m just trying to make sure my athletics are taken care of but also (keep) my family life and my work-life balance organized,” Kelter said.

Since rugby is such a widely played international sport and given that she plays professionally overseas when she is not representing Team USA, Kelter will be going up against some of her Premier League teammates when she takes the field at the Olympics.

While she enjoys all of the places and that playing international rugby has taken her, Kelter would like to see the growth of women’s rugby continue to expand domestically in the United States so that more of the top talent from America feel more inclined to compete closer to home.

“We would love to see all of our U.S. National Team players back home giving to grassroots programs and giving back to the clubs they once were on,” she said.