Completed Event: Women's Golf at Princeton Invitational on October 5, 2025 , , 6th of 13 (+34)
Final
Women's Golf
at Princeton Invitational
6th of 13 (+34)
Athlete Awards
Albert Velikonja
- Award:
- Athletes of the Week
- Week:
- 8/1/2023
- Sport:
- Men's Cross Country
- Bio:
- View Full Bio
Throughout the summer, DartmouthSports.com will be focusing on members of the Class of 2025 who are currently in their "Sophomore Summers" presented by the Norwich Inn.
This installment focuses on Albert Velikonja of the men's cross country and track & field programs.
DartmouthSports.com: What have you been doing during your sophomore summer?
Albert Velikonja: As a cross country runner, I compete during the fall, winter and spring, so I'm actually on an off term. Therefore, my days are pretty stress free and enjoyable. I'm still spending the summer up in Hanover, which has been great. My main focus is training for the cross country season, but on the side, I've got a few hobbies to make sure I'm busy when I'm not training. I enjoy reading, am doing research with the history department, spending time with my teammates, am trying to teach myself French and have been writing some short stories on the side for fun. Nothing too concrete, but things that keep me sane and are a good way to keep myself intellectually stimulated and accountable to not being a complete slob while I'm not taking classes. Also planning a trip with my twin brother in a couple weeks to see the new Oppenheimer film and the MET.
DS: If you could play another sport at Dartmouth, what would it be and why?
AV: I played soccer until senior year of high school, so in another life I would have tried to play collegiate soccer. I still follow the pro game heavily and sometimes miss playing. I love the thrill of a race, but there was nothing I enjoyed more during my playing days than putting the team on my back and being the best player on the field. When those days were over, I switched to running :). What I love about running is being relied on, and that's what I miss about soccer and would replicate again if I had the chance.
DS: Outside of sports, what are you most passionate about?
AV: A few things. Like I said, I love to read, specifically fiction and about history (I'm going to major in history). There's a quote that goes something along the lines of "if you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate," so safe to say that I'm illiterate as it stands, but I'm working on it.
Apart from that, I have a deep appreciation for various mediums of art, whether it's paintings, film, etc. I'm not the most knowledgeable person in the world, far from it, but that's what makes it interesting. I love the opportunity to learn about the world through the lenses of other people, and there are a lot of people to learn from. A great work of fiction or a beautiful painting are avenues into the soul, I like to think.
Finally, like I said, I'm currently trying to teach myself French. I'm far from a global citizen, but I was born in Montreal and have a father who works in the foreign service. He actually met my mom while on a post in the Philippines, so since I was a kid, I've come to learn the importance of expanding my cultural horizons. I like doing things that contribute to that and have been able to become conversational in both Spanish and German. Hopefully I can add French to the repertoire pretty soon.
DS: Other than your parents, who has had the greatest influence on your life?
AV: Tom Brumlik was my high school track coach, and I would say has influenced the way I think about things pretty heavily. We still talk now and then, but he prepared me really well to develop the independence to do well as a student-athlete, especially at a place like Dartmouth. What it means to have structure, what good leadership looks like, how to show up for people and what that actually means and plenty more of the intangibles. I don't want to ramble on, but all of the qualities that I am most proud of about myself are in one way or another because of him. If he said he was going to do something, he did it. If he said he was going to be somewhere at a certain time, he showed up early. That's more rare than a lot of people would think, and I like to think that I've taken from him in that aspect of things. I'm far from perfect, but Tom is someone who I try to emulate on a daily basis.
DS: If there was one movie that you could watch again for the first time, what movie would it be and why?
AV: One hundred percent would have to be Midnight in Paris. It's about an American man named Gill (Owen Wilson), on a trip with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams) to Paris. He has a stable job as a Hollywood screenwriter but is trying to write a novel. He has this dream of living in Paris and working on his book, but everyone around him is discouraging of it and doubtful of his abilities. At midnight one night, while on a walk, a car from the 1920s shows up. He gets in and spends the night with literary and artistic icons of the 1920s.
The film is loosely based on history, incorporating writers and artists who actually lived in Paris during the time. As a fan of these people, it is like dream come true for someone like me, and obviously for someone like Gill, too. So, the film focuses on his interactions with these people and touches on the idea of "Golden Age thinking."
Knowing what I know now about Paris in the 1920s, it's pretty beautiful the way the film brings people like Hemingway, Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Salvador Dalí to life. It's a very feel-good and stress-free movie and I think getting to watch it again for the first time would be a very fulfilling experience.
DS: If you could choose one moment in sports history that you could have been at, what moment would it be and why?
AV: Anyone who knows me wouldn't be surprised for me to say the 2016 Olympic 1500m final. My favorite runner, Matthew Centrowitz Jr., upset the field to win Olympic Gold. When your favorite athlete reaches the pinnacle of their sport, as an admirer of theirs it cannot get any better. In 2016, I didn't even respect running as a sport, but seven years later that undoubtedly has to be my answer. Centrowitz is 33 years old now and although I still believe in his ability to make the Olympics again in 2024, I would have loved to see my favorite runner at his best. I've only ever felt true euphoria three or four times in my life, but I can imagine this would have been one of them.
I've also met his dad, which was a really valuable experience for me, and there's a pretty great video of his dad and friends celebrating in the crowd during the final stretch of the race. Family and friends going nuts, just about how you would expect them to react seeing him win Olympic Gold.
DS: What would be your best advice to your 15-year-old self?
AV: That you're going to be able to figure it out.
I didn't have that many stresses at 15 and it isn't as if I do now, but I haven't always had the confidence that I would be able to figure things out and have them work out for me. It's ironic given that I go to Dartmouth, but I wasn't always academically inclined, so for things to work out the way they have by virtue of self-trust and natural progression is pretty great.
There's no reason why I shouldn't feel the same way about the next 10 years of my life, for example. We're all worried about jobs, financial security, etc., but as long as I remain as diligent and steadfast as I have always been, I have trust that I'll be able to craft a life for myself that brings me everything I could ever need.
So, in short, trust that you'll be able to figure things out.
This installment focuses on Albert Velikonja of the men's cross country and track & field programs.
DartmouthSports.com: What have you been doing during your sophomore summer?
Albert Velikonja: As a cross country runner, I compete during the fall, winter and spring, so I'm actually on an off term. Therefore, my days are pretty stress free and enjoyable. I'm still spending the summer up in Hanover, which has been great. My main focus is training for the cross country season, but on the side, I've got a few hobbies to make sure I'm busy when I'm not training. I enjoy reading, am doing research with the history department, spending time with my teammates, am trying to teach myself French and have been writing some short stories on the side for fun. Nothing too concrete, but things that keep me sane and are a good way to keep myself intellectually stimulated and accountable to not being a complete slob while I'm not taking classes. Also planning a trip with my twin brother in a couple weeks to see the new Oppenheimer film and the MET.
DS: If you could play another sport at Dartmouth, what would it be and why?
AV: I played soccer until senior year of high school, so in another life I would have tried to play collegiate soccer. I still follow the pro game heavily and sometimes miss playing. I love the thrill of a race, but there was nothing I enjoyed more during my playing days than putting the team on my back and being the best player on the field. When those days were over, I switched to running :). What I love about running is being relied on, and that's what I miss about soccer and would replicate again if I had the chance.
DS: Outside of sports, what are you most passionate about?
AV: A few things. Like I said, I love to read, specifically fiction and about history (I'm going to major in history). There's a quote that goes something along the lines of "if you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate," so safe to say that I'm illiterate as it stands, but I'm working on it.
Apart from that, I have a deep appreciation for various mediums of art, whether it's paintings, film, etc. I'm not the most knowledgeable person in the world, far from it, but that's what makes it interesting. I love the opportunity to learn about the world through the lenses of other people, and there are a lot of people to learn from. A great work of fiction or a beautiful painting are avenues into the soul, I like to think.
Finally, like I said, I'm currently trying to teach myself French. I'm far from a global citizen, but I was born in Montreal and have a father who works in the foreign service. He actually met my mom while on a post in the Philippines, so since I was a kid, I've come to learn the importance of expanding my cultural horizons. I like doing things that contribute to that and have been able to become conversational in both Spanish and German. Hopefully I can add French to the repertoire pretty soon.
DS: Other than your parents, who has had the greatest influence on your life?
AV: Tom Brumlik was my high school track coach, and I would say has influenced the way I think about things pretty heavily. We still talk now and then, but he prepared me really well to develop the independence to do well as a student-athlete, especially at a place like Dartmouth. What it means to have structure, what good leadership looks like, how to show up for people and what that actually means and plenty more of the intangibles. I don't want to ramble on, but all of the qualities that I am most proud of about myself are in one way or another because of him. If he said he was going to do something, he did it. If he said he was going to be somewhere at a certain time, he showed up early. That's more rare than a lot of people would think, and I like to think that I've taken from him in that aspect of things. I'm far from perfect, but Tom is someone who I try to emulate on a daily basis.
DS: If there was one movie that you could watch again for the first time, what movie would it be and why?
AV: One hundred percent would have to be Midnight in Paris. It's about an American man named Gill (Owen Wilson), on a trip with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams) to Paris. He has a stable job as a Hollywood screenwriter but is trying to write a novel. He has this dream of living in Paris and working on his book, but everyone around him is discouraging of it and doubtful of his abilities. At midnight one night, while on a walk, a car from the 1920s shows up. He gets in and spends the night with literary and artistic icons of the 1920s.
The film is loosely based on history, incorporating writers and artists who actually lived in Paris during the time. As a fan of these people, it is like dream come true for someone like me, and obviously for someone like Gill, too. So, the film focuses on his interactions with these people and touches on the idea of "Golden Age thinking."
Knowing what I know now about Paris in the 1920s, it's pretty beautiful the way the film brings people like Hemingway, Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Salvador Dalí to life. It's a very feel-good and stress-free movie and I think getting to watch it again for the first time would be a very fulfilling experience.
DS: If you could choose one moment in sports history that you could have been at, what moment would it be and why?
AV: Anyone who knows me wouldn't be surprised for me to say the 2016 Olympic 1500m final. My favorite runner, Matthew Centrowitz Jr., upset the field to win Olympic Gold. When your favorite athlete reaches the pinnacle of their sport, as an admirer of theirs it cannot get any better. In 2016, I didn't even respect running as a sport, but seven years later that undoubtedly has to be my answer. Centrowitz is 33 years old now and although I still believe in his ability to make the Olympics again in 2024, I would have loved to see my favorite runner at his best. I've only ever felt true euphoria three or four times in my life, but I can imagine this would have been one of them.
I've also met his dad, which was a really valuable experience for me, and there's a pretty great video of his dad and friends celebrating in the crowd during the final stretch of the race. Family and friends going nuts, just about how you would expect them to react seeing him win Olympic Gold.
DS: What would be your best advice to your 15-year-old self?
AV: That you're going to be able to figure it out.
I didn't have that many stresses at 15 and it isn't as if I do now, but I haven't always had the confidence that I would be able to figure things out and have them work out for me. It's ironic given that I go to Dartmouth, but I wasn't always academically inclined, so for things to work out the way they have by virtue of self-trust and natural progression is pretty great.
There's no reason why I shouldn't feel the same way about the next 10 years of my life, for example. We're all worried about jobs, financial security, etc., but as long as I remain as diligent and steadfast as I have always been, I have trust that I'll be able to craft a life for myself that brings me everything I could ever need.
So, in short, trust that you'll be able to figure things out.
Date | Athlete | Sport |
|---|---|---|
| 9/30/2025 | Grayson Saunier | Football |
| 9/30/2025 | Sudi Zhao | Sailing - Open & Women's |
| 9/23/2025 | D.J. Crowther | Football |
| 9/23/2025 | Kate Ryan | Women's Soccer |
| 9/16/2025 | Eidur Baldvinsson | Men's Soccer |
| 9/16/2025 | Ella Bowman | Field Hockey |
| 9/9/2025 | Kauany Gutz | Women's Volleyball |
| 9/9/2025 | Ashton Bange | Men's Cross Country |
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