“I don’t think I’ll ever experience a high like that again in my entire life,” Kristi Kirsche ’17 said of the moment she and her teammates became Olympic medalists by clinching a 14-12 last-second thriller against Australia in the rugby sevens bronze medal match.
A love for competition and a commitment to athletics have been crucial aspects of Kirsche’s identity for her entire life, she told the Record. “I basically played every single sport that I could growing up,” she said, recalling her time in soccer, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, and football. In high school, she competed on her varsity soccer, lacrosse, and basketball teams.
At the College, Kirsche continued her athletic exploits on the soccer field, carrying the Ephs to success many times between 2013 and 2016.
“My experience with the team was amazing,” Kirsche said. “I made a lot of really good friends, and I learned a lot about what it means to be part of a team and the importance of building team culture and camaraderie.”
In 2014, the Ephs suffered just two defeats, one of which followed a penalty shootout in the NCAA Div. III National Championship game. A year later, the team was able to win the national championship, redeeming that stinging loss. “It definitely did feel like a little bit of a redemption story,” Kirsche said. “Going into that year we really knew what it was going to take.”
Kirsche’s individual achievements speak for themselves: When she graduated, she held the College’s record for the most career goals and the most goals in a single season. She was also a two-time recipient of All-American recognition and the 2016 NESCAC Player of the Year.
To provide Kirsche a new athletic alternative, a high school friend introduced her to rugby. Initially, she was hesitant about trying out the sport. “I was like, ‘I know nothing about rugby,absolutely not,’” Kirsche said.
When Kirsche decided to attend her first rugby practice — six months after her friend pitched the idea — the sport did not immediately click for her. “It was kind of a disaster because truly I didn’t know the rules,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on, and I was very overwhelmed.”
In October 2018, however, after a few months of club play, Kirsche was recruited by USA Rugby. She moved to California to train full time and debuted with the USA National Team in January 2019, just 11 months after her introduction to the sport.
Since her debut, Kirsche has competed for the United States Women’s National Team, including at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where Team USA placed sixth.
“Tokyo was kind of like dipping your toe into the [Olympic] experience,” Kirsche said. “You kind of get used to living in the Village and the movement and the logistics of being in the Olympics as a team.”
However, Kirsche noted the challenges of playing at the 2021 Olympics, which were impacted by COVID-19. “It was a little odd to be playing in front of no one and for no fans to be anywhere,” Kirsche said. “It was kind of hard to be like, ‘I am accomplishing the dream I have been working towards and my parents don’t get to be here.’”
At the Paris Games, a record 66,000 people attended one of Team USA’s matchups, Kirsche noted. “I remember we were getting ready for kickoff, and my body was tingling a little bit, just feeling the energy of the crowd,” she said.
Fortunately, Team USA was able to take advantage of this electric atmosphere and improve upon its 2021 performance. All of the team’s games were scheduled over three days, and on day one, Team USA defeated Japan and Brazil in group stage play, building its confidence.
On the second day, Team USA lost its first game against France. “We could not hear each other on the field because it was so loud in that stadium,” Kirsche said. Despite the loss, the team’s performance in the other two group stage games allowed it to advance to knockout stages.
After defeating Great Britain in an intense and emotional quarterfinal — “winning that game gave us the opportunity to be in medal position, and that’s all we wanted,” Kirsche said — Team USA lost 12-24 in a hard-fought semifinal against reigning Olympic champions New Zealand.
The bronze medal match on day three against Australia became an instant classic. “I couldn’t have story-booked it better than the game went,” Kirsche said. Each team scored early before the game morphed into a defensive battle, with Australia retaking a 12-7 lead with only 1:25 remaining.
With mere seconds left, Team USA’s Alex Sedrick broke multiple tackles and raced down the field. As time expired, she scored the game-tying try and punched in the winning kick, giving the United States a 14-12 win.
The game was in doubt until the end, Kirsche said. “We didn’t have somebody who normally kicks on the field,” Kirsche said. “From the second that you score, you only have 30 seconds to take the conversion kick, and so we’re all looking around at each other, like, ‘Oh my God, who’s going to take this kick, oh my God, who’s going to take this kick?’ And then [Sedrick] took the kick and then it was pure euphoria, pure madness.”
The moment, marking Team USA’s historic first-ever medal in women’s rugby sevens, went viral and set in motion a huge celebration for Kirsche and her teammates. Even now, Kirsche said, reality has yet to sink in entirely. “There has been some really incredible recognition and really cool experiences that have come from it, and so that’s pretty amazing, but then there’s some days where you start to go back to your regular life, and it feels unreal,” Kirsche said.
As of now, Kirsche plans to return to training in hopes of competing with Team USA at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Regardless of whether she succeeds, her time in Paris has given her a deep appreciation for the beauty and diversity that Olympic competition encompasses, she said.
“During the Olympics, so many of us watch so many different sports that we wouldn’t have watched, and we get invested in so many things that we don’t get to see that often,” Kirsche said. “And I think getting to share that with the people actually competing in those sports is a really cool experience.”
