Britta Curl-Salemme

Did You Know?

• Curl's sister Brenna plays hockey for the Maine Black Bears.
• She married former Wisconsin Badgers wrestler Andrew Salemme on September 7, 2024.

Early life

Britta Curl was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, to Gretchen and Bill Curl, and raised with two brothers, Byrne and Cullen, and a sister, Brenna, in a Catholic household. Her mother is a physician, and her father retired early to help raise the children. She began skating at age three on a backyard ice rink built each winter by her father, where she and her siblings played pickup games. Curl credits her brothers and sister with creating a competitive family dynamic that shaped her playing style. She played boys youth hockey until eighth grade, then joined the Bismarck Blizzard, the co-op girls team for all Bismarck high schools. Attending St. Mary's Central High School, a private Catholic school, she recorded 189 goals and 116 assists over five seasons with the Blizzard, leading the team to four consecutive state championships from 2015 to 2018 and serving as captain for three of those teams. She was state leading scorer in her sophomore and junior seasons and named state tournament MVP in 2018 after scoring twice in a 3-0 championship win over Fargo North-South. Curl also competed in soccer, track and field, and briefly as a kicker for the school's football team, earning all-state honors in soccer and setting school records in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles.

Playing career

Curl began her collegiate career for the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2018–19 season, scoring her first goal on October 5, 2018, against Mercyhurst. She was named WCHA Rookie of the Week for the week ending October 30, 2018, after a goal and an assist, and later WCHA Player of the Week for the week ending February 12, 2019, after tying her career high with three points against Minnesota State. During a series against St. Cloud State, she had two multi-goal games, and her four goals tied for the WCHA and NCAA lead in scoring. She became the seventh Badger freshman to score 20 or more goals, finishing with 22 goals and 11 assists, and helped Wisconsin win the national championship. In the 2019–20 season, she recorded 16 goals and nine assists in 36 games before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was named an alternate captain for the 2020–21 season and recorded seven goals and ten assists in 21 games as the Badgers repeated as national champions. As captain in the 2022–23 season, she had 19 goals and 23 assists in 41 games, leading the team in goals and tying for the lead in game-winning and power-play goals, and Wisconsin won another national title. In the 2023–24 season, again as captain, she posted a career-high 62 points on 22 goals and 40 assists, setting a school record with goals in ten consecutive games. She finished her collegiate career with 86 goals and 93 assists in 181 games, ranking seventh in program history in goals, 14th in assists, and ninth in points with 179, and is Wisconsin's all-time leader in games played.

International play

Curl-Salemme represented the United States at the 2018 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship in Obihiro, Russia, recording four goals and four assists in five games and scoring two goals in the gold medal game as the U.S. defeated Sweden 9-3. She has competed in four IIHF Women's World Championships, winning gold in 2023 and 2025 and silver in 2021 and 2024. Her first senior team appearance came at the 2021 World Championship in Calgary, where she scored a goal in three games as the U.S. lost the gold medal game to Canada in overtime. After the 2021 World Championship, she took a year away from Wisconsin for the U.S. residency program preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but was one of the final cuts before the 23-player roster was announced. On February 6, 2022, she was selected to replace Brianna Decker, who had suffered a broken left fibula and torn ligaments, but Curl-Salemme tested positive for COVID-19 during processing in Los Angeles and could not travel to Beijing. She was named to the U.S. roster for the 2023 World Championship in Brampton, Ontario, winning gold, and at the 2024 World Championship she recorded three assists in seven games and won silver. She was selected for the 2025 World Championship in Prague, where the U.S. won gold. On December 11, 2025, she scored in a 10-4 victory over Canada in Edmonton, the first time Canada allowed 10 goals in a loss to the U.S. On January 2, 2026, she was named to the Olympic roster, and in the quarterfinals she registered a goal and an assist in a 6-0 win over host Italy, the first meeting between the U.S. and Italy in women's Olympic ice hockey.

Social media controversy

Curl has drawn controversy for her social media activity, including reposting promotional material from The Daily Wire for the film What Is a Woman?, which questions societal recognition of gender identity and has been described as anti-trans or transphobic; liking a post supporting Kyle Rittenhouse; and liking a post from conservative commentator Candace Owens calling Target 'perverted' for selling tuck-friendly women's swimwear as part of its 2023 Pride lineup. In June 2023, she posted in support of Jocelyne Lamoureux after Lamoureux praised USA Powerlifting for appealing a ruling requiring it to permit a transgender woman in its women's categories. Freelance journalist Nicole Haase called for Lamoureux's removal from the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association board, and Curl responded with a caption thanking Lamoureux for protecting female players. When her selection by Minnesota in the 2024 PWHL Draft led to backlash, she posted an apology video stating that her social media activity had caused hurt across LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. The team released a statement about inclusivity but did not directly reference Curl. In September 2025, she was announced as a representative of FIERCE Athlete, an organization that aims to empower Christian female athletes and has platformed anti-trans content.