Caroline Harvey willed herself to become one of the world's best hockey players

NBC Sports

14-04-2025

Years before Caroline 'KK' Harvey became an Olympic hockey player at age 19 and the world's best defender at 20, she regularly punched the speed bag and the heavy bag.
Harvey's early boxing training — some time around ages 10-13, her dad said — included a stint at Ramalho's West End Gym in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The facility was a setting for the 'The Fighter,' a Best Picture-nominated 2010 film based on the true story of professional boxer Micky Ward.
A young Harvey impressed Dicky Eklund, Ward's half-brother and trainer whom Christian Bale won an Oscar for portraying. Eklund described her as tenacious.
'It got to the point where (Eklund) said, 'She hits like a truck. I want to put her in Silver Mittens (youth tournament) to box against women, and I think she'll do unbelievable,'' Harvey's father, David, said. 'That's when my wife stepped in and said, 'Hey, I don't mind the training. I don't mind the workouts. I just don't want her to get hit in the face.'
'We decided at that point she wasn't going to be a boxer, but she had boxing in her routine. It helped (for hockey) with her foot speed, helped with her hand speed, helped with her endurance.'
About a decade later, Harvey is a force on the ice. In 2022, she was the youngest player on the U.S. Olympic team. She has since made the All-Star team at the last three World Championships (one of two defenders selected per year), including being named best defender overall at the 2023 Worlds.
Harvey leads U.S. skaters in ice time through three wins at the 2025 World Championship, which began last Wednesday and runs through a final this coming Sunday.
Those close to Harvey over the years rave about her work ethic: a childhood routine of 100 push-ups before bedtime, bringing her own chin-up bar to prep school (and adding 25 pounds for sets) and doing sprints in those school hallways when it was too cold to run outside.
'Seeing her do all the amazing things that she's doing, I can look back and be like, yeah, that's not luck,' said Minnesota-Duluth forward Mary Kate O'Brien, Harvey's youth teammate on a Worcester Junior Sharks roster of all boys save two girls. 'Nothing's been handed to her. She deserves it.'
Harvey's parents took her to the rink as a toddler. They'd put her in a carrier and face her toward the ice while older brother Nolan learned to play hockey. Caroline was learning, too.
'Her eyes would go back and forth as an infant, and that's how she really got her first start,' David said.
Caroline was the only girl who wore a hockey helmet for learn-to-figure-skate lessons at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Her parents wanted her to become a sound skater before beginning hockey. The figure skaters had the best technique, they reasoned.
Once in pads, Harvey at first wore jersey No. 3, just like her brother. It's a special number for the family: Nolan was born premature at three pounds. Harvey is called 'KK' by those close to her because her other sibling, baby sister Grace, could not pronounce 'Caroline' when she started talking. She said 'KK' instead, and the nickname stuck.
Harvey left home at 13 to attend Bishop Kearney, a private Catholic school in Rochester, New York, that produced several players on the current U.S. world championship team.
Harvey became a high scorer off the ice in strength and conditioning testing: pull-ups, push-ups, bench presses, deadlifts and 300-yard shuttle runs. Her sprint testing numbers in her mid-teens rivaled veteran national teamers, Bishop Kearney coach Cari Coen said.
'We had teachers that would be showing up early to work before school, and KK would be running sprints or down in the shooting room or doing an extra workout,' Coen said. 'Those little things that would separate her from her age group, and then she continued to do that throughout her career as she got older.'
Harvey now wears No. 4, the number most associated with blueliners given it was worn by Boston Bruins legend Bobby Orr. Harvey, who is from New Hampshire, attended Bruins games as a kid and has watched video of Orr. But the number association is pure coincidence.
'I tried every position, but defense stuck with me the most,' she said. 'I have always loved to be able to see the whole ice and watch the play develop, and obviously break up the opposition.'
Harvey, then 15, remembers watching the 2018 Olympic gold-medal game on TV, which began at 11:10 p.m. ET in South Korea and was won in a shootout by the Americans over the Canadians.
Caroline Harvey (around age 17) with 2018 Olympic champion team captain Meghan Duggan. (via David Harvey)
Few would have thought she'd make the next Olympic team. But Harvey actually did predict it — around age 6 to aunt Amy.
'She was sitting there with her fingers counting out to my sister the years, and (Amy) goes, 'What are you doing?'' David said. 'She said, 'I'm just counting the number of years it's going to take, and I'll be in the '22 Olympics.''
Still, Harvey was shocked when it was confirmed on a mid-December 2021 day in a Blaine, Minnesota, lounge. USA Hockey women's national team director Katie Million addressed a 23-player group as the Olympic team for the first time after the final cuts.
'It sticks to me to this day,' Harvey said. 'It's something I'll always remember for the rest of my life. Just instant chills, being in that room with 22 other girls.'
Harvey tried to be a sponge in that first year with the senior national team. 'I still am always trying to learn something new every day,' she said.
The youngest player on the Olympic team also played the fewest minutes (23 minutes, 10 seconds) of any American skater during the Beijing Games (save the injured Brianna Decker). She played 62 seconds in the gold-medal-game loss to Canada.
'I don't think anyone four years ago thought that a 14-year-old named Caroline Harvey would be making that squad, so this is just bonus,' David said. 'But the competitor in her was, she felt like she could help the team and that she could really make a difference out there.'
BRAMPTON, ONTARIO - APRIL 16: Defender Caroline Harvey #4 of Team USA celebrates the 6-3 win over Canada during the gold medal game of the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship at CAA Centre on April 16, 2023 in Brampton, Ontario. (Photo by)
In 2023, Caroline Harvey became the second defender to ever lead the U.S. in points at an Olympics or worlds, and the first skater to lead the U.S. in both points and ice time. (Getty Images)
Harvey's confidence dropped after not playing much in Beijing. John Wroblewski noticed after he was brought in as the new U.S. head coach in May 2022.
Wroblewski and Harvey had a 15-to-30-minute talk while in Denmark in August 2022 before the World Championship tournament.
The coach reminded Harvey that she had already accomplished everything a player could by age 19 — reaching the Olympics and earning a scholarship to a dream school (Wisconsin, having committed after eighth grade). You can play aggressively, make mistakes and still be a key part of the national team for the next decade.
'She jumped from high school hockey to the Olympics,' Wroblewski said. 'I think that was an abrupt and interesting event for her to probably encounter a little bit of disappointment or discouragement, or even a little bit of her confidence was in need of a rebuild. And that's just completely understandable with putting an 18-year-old or 19-year-old into that Olympic pressure cooker, right? Slowly but surely, her game has risen.'
It's no surprise to family, friends and coaches. Harvey grew up self-determined: racing her dad up the stairs and circling hockey schools she wanted to attend. 'It's 100% her,' David said of the work ethic.
'You meet these crazy hockey parents that think their kid's going to be the next greatest thing, and they push and push and push, and the kid may not want it as much as (the parents) do,' said Mike Myers, who coached Harvey on the Worcester Junior Sharks. 'This was the opposite. She was driving the bus.'
One summer, Harvey and the Sharks visited her family home in the middle of a two-game day.
While teammates splashed in the pool, Harvey opened up the garage and showed her coach, Mike Myers, some of her off-ice training regimen. She threw on gloves and hit the speed bag.
'A 12-year-old-girl with a little boxing setup in her gym was definitely eye-opening,' Myers said. 'It just showed you where her head was at that time, and where it remains.'
Nick Zaccardi,