Day 9 - Alev Kelter: The Heartbeat Behind Team USA's Stunning Rugby Victory | The Game Inside the Games

Michael Gervais (0:00)

Day nine from Paris. We take a look inside one of the most iconic moments of the game so far. Welcome back, or welcome to the Game Inside the Games on Finding Mastery. I'm Dr. Michael Gervais by trade and training a high-performance psychologist.

Nastia Liukin (0:16)

And I'm Nastia Liukin, Olympic gold medalist, and we are here in Paris. And in this special series, we unlock the psychology of pivotal, often unseen moments that can make or break an athlete's dream. What's it like to focus a lifetime of experience into one performance, a single moment?

Michael Gervais (0:33)

What goes on inside the minds of the brightest stars while the whole world is watching? Welcome back to Paris, and let's dive into the Game Inside the Games.

Nastia Liukin (0:43)

Welcome back to Paris and the Game Inside the Games, presented by Microsoft Co-Pilot.

Michael Gervais (0:46)

Today, we have Alev Kelter joining us. Alev, it is so great to have you here. Three-time Olympian and you've represented the United States in three different sports, ice hockey, soccer, and now rugby. Congratulations on a radical body of work. I mean, that is incredible.

Nastia Liukin (1:04)

Just to hear all the sports. I'm like, okay, here we are being underachievers over here with one.

Michael Gervais (1:11)

Walk us through just for a moment, what it was like to settle into rugby. You played ice hockey, soccer, and now rugby.

Alev Kelter (1:19)

I grew up in Alaska and we played like seven different sports. By the time I was in high school, it was really important to specialize.

A lot of people said you had to play one. I was very passionate about ice hockey and soccer and I said, can I keep both? Yeah. It was a dream to play both Division I and college. That's how I started to look for the schools that I wanted to go to.

Nastia Liukin (1:40)

Did one of the sports help each other or was it just completely different mindsets? I guess similar skill set maybe perhaps for both.

Alev Kelter (1:49)

But they both complement each other so well. In Alaska, it's a winter sport and then a summer sport. It was when I'm not playing ice hockey and there's snow on the ground, I'm playing soccer and every time, and that's how I knew I needed to play both because when I was playing soccer, I missed hockey and when I was playing hockey, I was like, I can't wait for the, maybe it was just I wanted summer to come.

I associate that with always playing sports.

Michael Gervais (2:15)

When you think about the physical side and the mental side, obviously there's a drive or a motivation or a commitment to play, to move. And does sport feel like it just fits for you? Or is this something you had to contour into because you just loved how it feels?

Alev Kelter (2:30)

No, I think that's a beautiful question because for me, I always grew up loving art and I think sport is a performance art. And I think that when you learn how to draw, you learn different perspectives and you have an horizon line and everything goes from that horizon line. And you have three point, two point perspective and then you can start to bring things 3D. And I really think sport creates a beautiful canvas for everybody to find their medium, to express themselves. And I think that's what artists do. Very cool.

Nastia Liukin (3:04)

I've never heard it in that way. And it's like, it's so true. I think just like seeing a blank slate can be sometimes scary or daunting. But once you start, it's like this beautiful journey that we've now seen, you get to live.

Michael Gervais (3:18)

Do you feel like gold medal, multiple medals, do you feel like sport was an art for you as well? because I know you were so analytical and I haven't heard you talk about it. Is that something that...

Nastia Liukin (3:32)

Well, I've never heard it that way. And I love that because I think like, yeah, painting a picture essentially is like an overused kind of phrase. But I think that, yeah, I think I was a little more like too almost trying to be too perfect. Whereas an artist, you know, you can you don't have to necessarily be perfect. When you try to be too perfect, it can not really turn into the best thing. But I think, yeah, I've never like heard it.

Alev Kelter (3:58)

Well, if you think about like, you think about different types of artwork, you have like pointillism, which is like very detailed art that makes this beautiful thing. And that's kind of my interpretation of your discipline is, you know, and then you have like the expressionistic, you have the cubist, I mean, you can fit anything to it, right? So, I mean, also we're in the heart of it here in Paris. So it's just like, it's been so inspirational.