HOF CLASS OF 2026: "Why Not Me' - The Kelsey Card story
July 28, 2026 | Women's Track & Field, Andy Baggot
It’s a powerful, yet relatively simple question that Kelsey Card tries to answer every day.
The words are simple enough, but they sure pack a wallop.
Why not me?
Those eight letters are prominently displayed in her workout area at home.
They were a driving motivational force for her two trips to the Olympics as a member of the U.S. Track and Field team in the discus.
They also will be engraved into the commemorative gold ring Card will receive for being inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.
“Why couldn’t I go to the Olympics, right?” Card asked rhetorically. “Why couldn’t I do this thing or that? What’s stopping me? What’s preventing this from happening? Just having that question and posing it to myself helped propel me forward.”
Why not, indeed.
Card is one of the most decorated, most versatile performers in UW track and field history. In addition to being an Olympic-caliber athlete – she qualified for the Summer Games in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020 in the discus – she won the NCAA outdoor title in the discus.
All told, Card earned seven first-team All-American citations, won seven league titles and set four school standards in the indoor shot put and weight throw and the outdoor shot and discus.
“She’s elite in every sense of the word. Obviously, that comes through in the weight room and the numbers she’s thrown using various implements, but the energy she brings to each conversation is most engaging. Total focus. Total commitment to problem-solving the situation at hand or committing the knowledge she has to you. The essence of engaging is complete focus on what’s in front of her.”Josie Schaefer
“She was always ready to go,” said Dave Astrauskas, the highly regarded throws coach for the Badgers. “Whether that be a NCAA championship or a Big Ten championship, she was ready.
“Her greatest strength was to be able to look at everything holistically, not to get chewed down on the days where things didn’t go so well and also not to get too high on the days that were great.”
Card said being part of the latest hall of fame class at UW left her with competing emotions. Has it really been 10 years since she graduated and began working toward becoming a marriage and family therapist?
“That’s terrifying,” she said with a wry laugh.
But being honored like this, one of 12 inductees in the hall of fame class of 2026, prompted a measure of reflection.
“It’s been on my mind quite a lot lately and I still don’t know,” Card said. “I’m still kind of like, ‘Is this real?’”
It is.
“This is really, really cool and an incredible honor,” she said.
This is the same outgoing, enthusiastic person who nearly quit and headed back to her home in Carlinville, Illinois, when she was a freshman.
“I almost went home and didn’t come back in the fall for a variety of reasons,” she said. “I was struggling to adapt to teammates and personalities and then just being away from home and school and all those things.
“I had quite a few bad days, but they are what they are. You cannot talk about the journey in time without including those because they shaped what I did and who I am just as much if not more than the good days.”
Card proceeded to describe some of the good things in her life.
Like Astrauskas. “His family became my family,” she said. “I was with him when he found that his wife was expecting Baby No. 2.”
Like multi-event coach Nate Davis. “His wife actually did my first ultrasound when I was pregnant,” Card said.
Like Mick Byrne, the UW director of men’s and women’s track and field and cross country. “He cared and came to watch me,” Card said.
Like Ed Nuttycombe, the UW Athletic Hall of Fame inductee and former men’s and women’s track and field coach. “He had no business caring what I, a female thrower, was doing, but ever since I was a freshman he would watch me at practice,” Card said in a kidding voice. “He would show up during competitions and talk to me and check in.”
Like Kris Eiring, a former UW track standout-turned-sports psychologist who helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. “Working with her it pretty much changed the entire trajectory of my athletic career and also really helped solidify that I wanted to help others with their mental health,” Card said.
Like Josie Schaefer, a four-time first-team All-American for UW who qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the shot put and discus in advance of the Tokyo Summer Games. “Josie, even though she was younger than me, she was wise beyond her years,” Card said. “We’re still close to this day.”
Schaefer was asked what makes Card unique as a person.
“She’s elite in every sense of the word,” Schaefer said. “Obviously, that comes through in the weight room and the numbers she’s thrown using various implements, but the energy she brings to each conversation is most engaging. Total focus. Total commitment to problem-solving the situation at hand or committing the knowledge she has to you. The essence of engaging is complete focus on what’s in front of her.”
Why not Kelsey Card?
“There’s been so many vital people that have left their imprint on my life and on this journey,” she said. “Like those people that you surround yourself with. They’re the ones that make the experience what it is. It really is.
“So, I’m very grateful for my time and experience here.’’
BEST OF THREE
One: Card said the most important lesson she learned at UW was relatively simple. “People is where it’s at,” she said.
Two: Being a Badger sometimes requires an awakening. “I didn’t realize what it would really mean to be a Badger, both athletically and as a academically as a Wisconsin student,” Card said. “I didn’t realize the profound impact that would have and the connections and the people that I would meet and what I would learn. It’s just incredible. Being a Badger means something and people are pretty hardcore about it and I love that.”
Three: Card was married to Andrew Bartsch, a fellow UW track and field athlete, in a throws circle near the Dan McClimon Memorial Track in July of 2017. They have a 17-month son named Wolfgang.
At Camp Randall Stadium on Thursday, May 28, University of Wisconsin Interim Director of Athletics Marcus Sedberry revealed that Kelsey Card will be inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026.
The class of legendary Badgers will be inducted into the Hall of Fame later this fall during a weekend of celebration on September 18 and 19. The inductees will be honored inside Camp Randall Stadium during Wisconsin Football's meeting with Eastern Michigan (Sept. 19 – 11:30 a.m. CT).
