Alaskans shine at Olympics, including Eagle River’s Alev Kelter in rugby sevens bronze win

Alaska tends to be home to more winter Olympians than summer, but there are two Alaskans competing for Team USA at the summer games in Paris and another on the South Sudanese team.

One is Eagle River’s Alev Kelter, a center on the U.S. rugby sevens team, who on Tuesday won a bronze medal, defeating an Australian team as time ran out in the match. Also competing in Paris is Kristen Faulkner, a Homer cyclist whose road race and team pursuit events are this weekend and early next week.

Then there’s JT Thor, who grew up in Anchorage and plays basketball for South Sudan, the youngest country on Earth, making a mark in its first Olympics.

Back here in Alaska, Anchorage Daily News sports reporter Josh Reed has been following the Alaska Olympians and writing profiles on them, starting with rugby star Alev Kelter.

Listen:

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This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Josh Reed: (Alev Kelter) grew up in Eagle River, went to high school at Chugiak, didn’t play rugby growing up at all. So she was a soccer player and a hockey player growing up, and that’s what she did in college, too, at Wisconsin, her and her twin sister. She didn’t discover rugby until after college when she was trying to make the Olympic team for hockey. And then once she didn’t make the cut there, she kind of just wondered, “Well, where do I go from here?” And then one of her coaches suggested to her that she, you know, give rugby a try. And then two years later, she’s in the Rio Olympics for rugby. So that was her first time around, in 2016, and, you know, now she’s on, this is her third time going to the Olympics.

Casey Grove: You talked to her about what it meant to her to come from Alaska and to be, you know, on this international stage. What did she tell you about that? I mean, like, what, you know, from Alaska kind of helped her on that journey?

JR: So being from Alaska, so she said, “Being Alaskan taught me what it was to be a team player,” and everything she knows about what she became as a rugby player, she learned from being Alaskan. You know, I was born and raised here myself to where you, especially if you live in more rural communities, people have to come together to support each other, right? Because you’re not gonna make it through these cold winters by yourself. So everything she learned about about being a team player, about being a leader about, you know, being who she was, she learned from being Alaskan. And that’s what she took a lot of pride in, not just representing her country, but her home state as well.

CG: Yeah, and I think in your story, too, she said it’s like, that’s her identity, right? People call her “the Alaskan.” And, you know, now she’s able to hang this bronze medal around her neck. And that was an exciting match. They went into this bronze medal match with Australia, right? And can you can you kind of describe how they pulled that out at the end, to win the bronze medal?

JR: This is basically equivalent to a Hail Mary in football, or maybe not even a Hail Mary, but like, one of those pitchy-pitchy woo-woo kind of things, a last ditch effort. It was a scrum, and the person who was carrying the ball refused to go down. And I guess they thought it was over, and she busted through and just took off. And that technically tied the game. That tied the match, so it didn’t necessarily win it for them. That’s why, they’re celebrating, but their coach was like, “Hey, calm down, we was still gotta get the extra kick, the kick for the two points to win it.”

And prior to that point, Alev had the only points for them of the game. They weren’t necessarily expected to win after being down. But to have that happen, that play, like the equivalent like a Hail Mary or something in football, that was a pretty exciting way to win the match. And I’m pretty sure Australia was stunned and devastated at the same time. But it was a great way for the American (rugby sevens) team to win its first Olympic medal ever. So that was great.

CG: And it’s interesting, you said Alev had the only points up to that point in the game, so it’s one of those things where, like, there’s the game winner, but if you didn’t score the try before that, you’re not in contention at all, right?

JR: Exactly.

CG: So, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about another athlete with really strong ties to Alaska and to Anchorage, but he’s not on Team USA, and that’s JT Thor. He’s a player on the South Sudanese basketball team. And even before the Olympics, there were exhibition games that that team was playing, other Olympic basketball teams were playing, kind of getting ready for the Olympics. And they made some big news in that exhibition game against Team USA, right?

JR: Yeah, he’s a kid that, you know, grew up in Alaska for most of his adolescence from, like, age 5 till about he was like 14 or 15 when he moved away to continue his prep career elsewhere in the Lower 48, to get a college scholarship. But yeah, so he was born in Omaha, Nebraska. That’s where his parents, his parents immigrated (to) when they left what was formerly Sudan, now South Sudan. And so a lot of people from from South Sudan migrated to the United States. You know, there was a huge contingent of them that migrated to Alaska. JT’s parents weren’t part of that, (but) they eventually came up here. He had some other family that was already up here, his cousin Goy, he’s over there with him right now in Paris.

But yeah, the South Sudanese team, they gave Team USA all they could handle and then some and that exhibition match. JT actually hit what was almost a game winner. So he had he had like a three-pointer with like three seconds left in the game to give them like a one point lead. Unfortunately, you know, LeBron James did LeBron James things and coast to coast and gave Team USA the winning bucket in the end. But it’s the fact that they were able to push that star -tudded group of Steph Curry, LeBron James, you know, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, all these well known, best players in the world. Team USA is projected, you know, to win it all. And the fact this South Sudanese team, even though it was an exhibition, they were able to push that team and only lose by a handful of points, was very impressive and kind of gave them confidence heading into, you know, the pool play. And then they got their first Olympic victory against Puerto Rico earlier this week.

CG: So then, I wanted to ask you, too, there’s a cyclist on Team USA from Homer, and her name is Kristen Faulkner, and she’s a road cyclist. What events or events is she competing in? And are those coming up still?

JR: Yeah, so she might be competing in three events, but as of right now she’s committed to two, which are happening on (August) 6th and 7th, next week. She may be competing in her first event on Sunday, which is the 4th, but she hasn’t committed to that one yet. But, I mean, she’ll definitely can be competing in two events next week.

Former University of Alaska Fairbanks shooter Sagen Maddalena has also medaled at the Paris Olympics.

Maddalena captured silver in the women’s 50-meter three-position rifle event Friday.

Maddalena, originally from California, graduated UAF in 2018 and now shoots for the U.S. Army. She is the third Nanook rifle team alum to win an Olympic medal.

Maddalena also competed in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

KUAC’s Dan Bross contributed information to this story.