By Maddie Miga

This summer, the U.S. Women’s Rugby Sevens Team won bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Kristi Kirshe, one of the team’s all-star players who grew up in Franklin, helped make this victory possible. With this being her first-ever Olympic medal, Kirshe describes this accomplishment as “a surreal experience.”

 

The 29-year-old Olympian first got into sports at a very young age. She began playing Pop Warner Football as a kid and picked up other sports like lacrosse, basketball, and soccer as she got older. Kirshe mentions how “growing up in Franklin, I had some really incredible coaches. Franklin offered me the opportunity to get to play a ton of different sports.” She goes on to say how grateful she was to be able to have played in different state and division championships. It was these “high-pressure games and high-pressure situations” that helped the future Olympian “develop as a player and as a person.” 

After being a three-sport athlete throughout her time at Franklin High School, Kirshe was offered a spot on the Women’s Soccer Team at Williams College. It was there that Kirshe set multiple goal and scoring records, as well as winning the NESAC 2016 Player of the Year Award. She also earned a B.A. in Political Science while at Williams. This degree led Kirshe to take a job at Ropes & Gray, a law firm in Boston, after graduating. While working here, however, Kirshe began to miss her days of competing.

The Olympian first learned rugby at age 23, when a close friend suggested that she should try out the sport. Grace Conley grew up with Kirshe in Franklin, and they were co-captains of their State Championship Soccer Team in high school. Kirshe began playing in February 2018, and in October of that same year, she was asked to move to California to join the USA National Rugby Team. Throughout Kirshe’s athletic career, she describes Conley as “the ultimate part of the journey. I wouldn’t be playing rugby if it wasn’t for her. She’s been there for my entire rugby journey, and my entire journey as a person.” Conley was able to watch Kirshe compete in this year’s Olympics from Paris, along with Kirshe’s close family. When asked about what advice she would give to any past version of herself, Kirshe stated that she would tell herself “not to give up on my dreams, because they’re going to take you places you don’t even know.”

Kirshe’s first time competing at the Olympics was in the 2020 Tokyo Games. Due to COVID-19, all events at the 2020 Olympics couldn’t allow any spectators. While comparing her experiences from then with this year, Kirshe says how “the entire Olympic experience was really different. It felt so much more special to have record crowds and for there to be such a massive support group.” Kirshe also brought up how important it was for her loved ones to be able to watch her in person from the stands and to be able to meet with them after every game. 

Throughout the 2024 Olympics, Kirshe played every minute of every game that the U.S. Women’s Rugby Team competed in. This includes her playing the entirety of the bronze medal match against Australia. When asked about how she keeps her energy and stamina going for a whole match, Kirshe says how her ability to do so is from “years and years of building tolerance. Every one of us has a role on this team, and I think one of my roles is being able to play a lot of minutes.” 

Kirshe describes winning an Olympic medal as “a huge accomplishment” not only for her and her team but also for helping “put rugby on the map in the U.S.” Prior to her team’s victory, the last time that America took home a medal for rugby was a century ago by the U.S. Men’s Fifteen Team. Kirshe mentions how this victory highlights “how strong and powerful we can be as women, which is something that’s not always celebrated in society.” She emphasizes how the sport “celebrates different body types and challenges stereotypes of what it means to be feminine while also being powerful.”

Looking at the entirety of her athletic career, Kirshe describes her gratitude for the Franklin community and how those in it have always made her feel supported. 

“Franklin’s a pretty big town,” she explains, “but it feels small in the way people support and stay in touch and care for one another.” Kirshe also brings up how excited she is to be able to come home and “celebrate with the town that really built me. I’m so proud to be from Franklin and to have grown up here. I feel an outpouring of support from the town. I think that kind of helps keep your confidence as a person, knowing that you have so many people who are rooting for you and wishing you the best.”