Britta Curl-Salemme
Episode 374
6 APR 2026
She just won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Italy in February as a member of the U.S. women’s ice hockey team. She is a forward in her second season with the Minnesota Frost of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Her international experience also includes having competed in three International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championships with Team USA, winning gold in 2023 and silver in both 2021 and 2024. Plus, she won a gold medal with the U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team at the 2018 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship. As a student-athlete she had played five seasons at the University of Wisconsin, winning three national championships along the way and earning several honors.
Notable guest quotes:
“My mom was very faithful. She came from a large Catholic family … and she really brought the faith into the central part of our family. We grew up going to Mass every Sunday, no matter if we were traveling or, four kids in sports could get hectic, but she always made sure that that was a central part of our life.”
“By putting us in the Catholic schools, kindergarten through when I graduated high school in Bismarck, just, we had awesome Catholic schools, great mentors and religious teachers, priests, I just think I was so lucky to grow up there.”
“Our high school was awesome, and they provided Adoration every lunch hour all year… it was a tiny little chapel on the second floor… I just decided one Lent I was going to start going and I went once a week and then I started going twice a week and then I just found myself wanting to be there more and more. And it’s hard not to be transformed when you’re sitting in front of Jesus every day like that. So that’s something that I’ve tried to continue doing.”
“I actually … played three sports through high school: hockey, track, and soccer. And I loved all of them, but hockey was always the number one for me.”
“I still tried my best … I went to Mass every Sunday and I stayed close to the sacraments, but then my sophomore year – so, I’d been going to the Newman Center… I decided to join a Bible study in my sophomore year because I felt like I needed community. And I think that really just encouraged me and jump started my faith in college and just got more involved there at the Newman Center. And I continued to do discipleship and meet different people.”
“It’s definitely a balance and I’ve just found that having a certain detachment from my sport and putting myself in the hands of Jesus and going to church and to my faith that’s just been so much more fulfilling for me and then it makes hockey more fun. I just get to go and enjoy myself and as my mom says, use the gift that He gave me.”
“I’ve won … many championships, awards, and it’s always the same thing. You win the award and you finish your season and then you’re just kind of like left there wondering, ‘What next’ or ‘Is that it? Is it not supposed to feel a little bit better?’ It’s just not as fulfilling as you might think because you worked hard for something. So just recognizing that and knowing where your fulfillment actually comes from.”
“It’s Italy and you don’t have to go too far without finding a Catholic church. So, I was lucky enough to go to Mass a number of times there for a few weeks.”
“I didn’t really know what to expect just as far as the fans and how many people were going to show up… but I was so impressed with how many American fans showed up, actually. I don’t think we had a game where we didn’t have a really strong showing of U.S. fans that just, whether they were random people that decided to come to a game or were coming through the area, we just had really good support… and then the gold medal game was unbelievable, just packed to the brim.”
“They’re the pros of the religious life. I’m watching them pray and go about their daily life and seeing what I can learn from them.”
“I like to write on my stick AMDG… that’s just like a reminder for me of why I’m doing it and what I hope to bring.”
Related link:
Britta on Minnesota Frost webpage