Olympic-bound hockey player draws strength from her Catholic faith, devotion to St. Thérèse

Britta Curl-Salemme’s love for skating and ice hockey began very early in her life. She remembers skating with her three siblings since “basically the time we could walk” after her dad built an ice rink in their backyard in Bismarck, N.D..

She told OSV News that she started dreaming of going to the Olympics when she was about 10 years old.

“As a girl, you had the NHL, which was all guys, but the thing you could see women doing was the Olympics,” she recalled. “I really looked up to the women’s Olympic players.” She would draw Olympic rings in her notebooks in grade school hoping to go one day.

Along with her passion for hockey and Olympic dreams, she was also learning about her Catholic faith which she credits her mom for making “a huge part of our family’s life.”

“My parents always made sure that we went to Mass every Sunday,” she said, “even when the four of us kids had travel for tournaments or were playing different sports, we didn’t miss a Sunday Mass.”

She said that consistency from her parents helped keep her faith strong along with their choice to put her and her siblings in the Catholic school system in the area. She is a graduate of St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck.

During her college years at the University of Wisconsin, she also benefited from a supportive community at the St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center and feels “very lucky” to have had the support of these strong faith communities over the years.

Now she is realizing her Olympic dream and will be heading to Milan, Italy, to compete on the U.S. women’s ice hockey team in her first Olympic games.

She said her faith has given her strength in her journey to the Olympics. “I think my life would be pretty chaotic and stressful if I didn’t have something steady and consistent that I can go back to that I drew strength from, and that’s my Catholic faith,” she emphasized, “just the routine of in the morning I get up and the first thing that I’m doing is going to my Bible.”

Looking to role models in her faith, she was inspired by the example of her mom’s “quiet faith” that’s evident in “the way that she lives,” and the example of the saints, especially St. Thérèse of Lisieux who “reignited” her faith in college and “was the first saint that I really attached myself to.”

She read “I Believe in Love,” a personal retreat book based on the teachings of St. Thérèse the summer after she graduated from high school. She said the book, which was given to her by one of her high school teachers, “just blew my mind” and St. Thérèse’s “spirituality and the way that she thought about humility just totally opened my eyes to a new way of thinking and of praying.”

She hadn’t heard of the Little Flower’s other Olympic connection, but St. Thérèse may have a special affinity for Olympic skaters as Tara Lipinski, who won the 1998 Olympic gold medal in figure skating, also had a special devotion to St. Thérèse and credits the intercession of the saint in her victory.

In her travels as a player with the Professional Women’s Hockey League, or PWHL, for the Minnesota Frost, Curl-Salemme features masstimes.org on her Instagram page and said going to Mass every Sunday has helped her keep a good perspective on things and see some “beautiful churches” on the road.

“Being able to relate the things that I’m learning and the things I’m going through with my faith,” she said, “that’s just been super important for me just to keep perspective and it’s a certain detachment from my sport. It’s been everything for me.”

That detachment came in handy when she faced a setback after initially being selected to play hockey in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

She had taken the year off of college and moved to Minnesota to train and try out for the Olympics but was cut from the team toward the end of the selection process. She got a second chance as she was chosen for the team when another player was injured but was unable to go at the last minute after testing positive for COVID.

She said that time was a “roller coaster of emotions and adversity,” but she ultimately was “peaceful and grateful for the whole experience.”

“I look back and I think God was really trying to teach me detachment and just to trust him and realize that my happiness and my purpose and my worth comes from more than just hockey,” she reflected.

For her upcoming trip to the Olympics, Curl-Salemme is excited about the experience and is also looking forward to seeing the Catholic culture and history in Italy. Her family has planned a trip to Rome and are hoping to see Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope.

Among her teammates over the years, Curl-Salemme said she’s had fun interactions over the topic of faith and “people just enjoy asking me questions and talking about the faith.” She even has a couple of teammates who are Catholic and join her for Mass.

“That’s been really cool, just the way that God has given me this avenue to kind of go out and talk about my faith or just even be an example,” she said. “I’m not one that really super outwardly needs to bring it up all the time or talk about it, but I think my teammates see me going to Mass consistently and hopefully showing virtue and being a good teammate and I think that opens the door for a lot of conversations.”

She said for female Catholic athletes one excellent resource that she discovered and has partnered with is the group FIERCE, an organization founded by Samantha Kelley, a Catholic author and former D1 soccer player, who aims to “empower female athletes to thrive in their God-given identity and femininity.” The group offers retreats, talks and mentorship for female athletes in high school, college and beyond.

What would Curl-Salemme tell a young Catholic athlete who is dreaming of one day going to the Olympics? “Live your faith boldly, especially in your sports, because we need that more than anything,” she said, adding that “you don’t have to do anything crazy, just live your faith. Keep going to the sacraments and being a good teammate, it’s going to be way more beneficial for you than winning any game or championship.”

Ultimately, Curl-Salemme does see hockey as one of her “paths to be a saint.” She said there’s a lot to learn from “the daily ins and outs of being on a team and being with tons of different people with different backgrounds and different personalities and the way that, as a team sport, you’re tested to sometimes die to yourself and put the team ahead of yourself.”

“It’s such good practice for greater life and things that Jesus is asking you to do,” she emphasized. “I kind of see it as like a little training, a little training table for heaven and for how I’m supposed to be.”

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