Britta Curl-Salemme was heavily critiqued entering the PWHL for her social media activity that included "likes" for openly racist and transphobic commentary, as well as her own post advocating against transgender women in women's sport.

This week however, Curl-Salemme's partnership with an organization promoting anti-trans and anti-abortion campaigns, FIERCE Athlete, has sparked renewed criticism. Curl-Salemme collaborated on an online video showcasing her PWHL routine on "The Lord’s day and game day..."

The video, among other items, discusses Curl-Salemme reading scripture at a Catholic church, preparing a meal, traveling to the game, and competing on the ice. 

The video also shows on-ice images captured within a skaters' huddle showing the several members of the Minnesota Frost with their sticks in the air and putting their hands into a circle. The video was taken on the ice at a PWHL game.

Curl-Salemme's social media post, which the second-year Frost player made collaboratively with FIERCE Athlete, was "liked" by a number of current PWHL players including Haley Winn, Kendall Cooper, Dominique Petrie, Hayley Scamurra, Dominique Petrie, Maddi Wheeler, Maggie Flaherty, and Savannah Norcross, as well as top 2026 PWHL Draft prospects Tessa Janecke and Emma Peschel, and former PWHL player Anneke Rankila. 

Peschel liked multiple posts made by the FIERCE Athlete account, and members of her Ohio State Buckeyes women's hockey team attended a FIERCE Athletes gathering. According to FIERCE Athlete's website, the organization wrote that on a trip to Ohio in partnership with FOCUS missionaries, "a highlight of their visit was a breakfast gathering with members of the OSU women’s ice hockey team, which provided meaningful conversation and encouragement."

Ohio State responded to a request for comment clarifying that it was not a team-sanctioned or organized event. It was instead one where players who attended made the choice themselves.

“Any attendance at the gathering by an Ohio State student-athlete was in their own personal capacity,” a school representative wrote in a statement to The Hockey News. “Ohio State supports every student-athlete’s right to freedom of speech and expression.”

PWHL players to comment on the video included Clair Butorac, Mae Batherson, Petrie, and Brooke Becker. Many other likes and comments were not publicly visible. 

While this is Curl-Salemme's first public collaboration with the group, she was announced as a "hand-picked" representative of the organization on September 5, 2025.

The Hockey News has reached out to the PWHL for comment regarding the use of on-bench, on-ice, and in-game video to promote an openly anti-trans organization.

Following the overwhelming backlash from fans and members of the LGBTQ+ community after her selection in the 2024 PWHL Draft, Britta Curl-Salemme posted an apology video on social media.

In that video, Curl-Salemme stated "I specifically recognize that my  social media activity has resulted in hurt being felt across communities in including LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals. I just want to apologize and take ownership of that."

"To those of you who may still have reservations, I hope you can extend me the grace to prove to you who I really am," she continued.

In her first league-wide media availability nearly a year after her selection in the 2024 PWHL Draft, and after league and team staff denied media access to Curl-Salemme on multiple occasions, Curl-Salemme addressed being booed across the league on a nightly basis saying, "Personally, I'd rather play in front of a full crowd that's booing me than an empty one. So you know that type of passion, it's really cool to see, and you know I can't control, you know, how they may feel towards me. It's it's all in good fun, I think."

Recently, Curl-Salemme participated in a feature article in The Athletic penned by women's hockey writer Hailey Salvian where Salvian claimed "Curl-Salemme has been vilified by progressives..."

The article continued by setting itself up as an opportunity for Curl-Salemme to clarify "her worldview."

"But what does she really think? Apart from a brief, and vague, public apology a few days after she was drafted, Curl-Salemme has never addressed the controversy — until now," Salvian wrote.

Curl-Salemme spoke in the article about people's "misunderstanding" of the type of person she is.

"If I was actually the way people say that I am, I would hope they would boo me. But it’s just not accurate,” Curl-Salemme said in The Athletic's article. “The person that has been painted and what has been shared, that sounds like a s—-y person. Someone who’s racist, transphobic, hateful and wants people to not exist, I wouldn’t like them either."

FIERCE Athlete websites state that "FIERCE Athlete is here to help you realize who you were created to be as a true and authentic female athlete," with a mission to "empower female athletes to thrive in their God-given identity and femininity."

Several podcast episodes produced by FIERCE Athlete focus specifically on anti-trans messaging and instructions on how listeners "can apply great courage through public action" to bar trans women from women's sport. This includes a podcast episode featuring anti-trans advocate Riley Gaines where she discusses competing "against a biological male, 'transgender' individual..."

Other episodes discuss "fighting against biological men competing in women’s sports and violating women’s locker room spaces."

While FIERCE athlete focuses on trans women in sport, their messaging speaks against transgender people in general. The organization has been present at many anti-trans rallies in recent weeks posting photos of members holding signs with the slogan "Two Sexes. One Truth."

Their website also promotes and encourages visitors to "Support and wear proudly XX-XY Athletics" clothing.

FIERCE Athlete also speaks out against abortion and a woman's right to choose. In one blog post, titled "American Loves Authentic Female Athletes" on the organization's official website, director Tracy Guerrette said that, contrary to comments by American soccer star Megan Rapinoe describing the "backlash" women are facing in America through legal action such as the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, that "mothers who are choosing life are applauded and revered."

Another article penned by founder and president Samantha Kelley called the American women's soccer team "anti-American, anti-woman, and pro-woke agenda…"

A former Division 1 NCAA soccer player and high school hockey player herself, who appeared in eight games in four NCAA seasons with UConn, Kelley wrote that "USWNT  'stars' Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan have both publicly endorsed biological men, identifying as transgender, playing women’s sports. Honestly, it baffles me." 

Kelley also referred to transgender women as "a disillusioned man" in her article and that through the actions of USA's national women's soccer team and their resulting loss in the 2023 World Cup, that ,"the darkness of this team has been exposed to the world."

The website also admonished a drag performance at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, saying the performance  was a "disgraceful act" that  "was a mockery of the Christian faith," calling drag, which is an art form often performed by members of the LGBTQ+ community, "sexual hedonism."

In the organization's most recent post, they advocated for laws "excluding biological males from female competition." 

Other posts on the site focus more an the organization's perceived interpretation of Catholic and Christian values and how Biblical messages can be applied to women, physical training, and athletes.

The Hockey News sent a request to comment to the PWHL and Minnesota Frost, including the opportunity for Curl-Salemme to speak on the matter.