Keller was born in Farmington Hills, Mich., but her family has deep ties to the area, with mother, Lynn, a track runner, and father, Greg, graduating from Loyalsock Township High School and Williamsport Area High School, respectively, in 1979.

Much of Keller’s extended family continues to reside throughout the greater Williamsport area.

Greg would go on to play as an All-American offensive lineman at Shippensburg University, before his work would move the couple to Detroit in 1979.

Keller first took to the ice at three years old, following her older brother, according to uncle and godfather, Dave Winner.

United States' Britta Curl (17) celebrates with Megan Keller (5) after Curl scored a goal against Italy during the second period of a women's ice hockey quarterfinal match at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

“When she was three, she wanted to skate because her older brother, Ryan, was playing Pee Wee hockey at that time, so figure skating came up, but she refused to take the lessons unless she was dressed in full hockey gear,” he said.

Ryan would go on to win two state championships in high school before playing for Michigan State University.

From that point on, Keller’s life revolved around hockey as she played for boys’ teams before transitioning to girls-only teams at 14, going on to play in the HoneyBaked Hockey Club, a nationally-known program with tournaments held throughout the east coast, midwest and even up into Canada.

Throughout her young years, Keller showed talent across a number of sports, playing boys baseball until turning 12, before shifting to softball in high school, where she played as an All-State shortstop leading to Division One softball offers, Dave said.

“She would joke with the coaches trying to recruit her, and say ‘if hockey doesn’t work out, I’ll give you a call. But otherwise, hockey is my sport,,” he said.

United States' Megan Keller celebrates after scoring a goal against Italy during the first period of a women's ice hockey quarterfinal match at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Strong appearances in the under-16 national team, and the U18 team, led to Keller receiving a full-ride to Boston College, where she graduated in 2019 with a degree in communications, Dave said.

During her freshman year, the team would go 40-0 into the national championship game.

“That was the first time, in around 45 years, that a team went into the national championship game undefeated,” Dave said.

Just a few years later, Keller, 21 at the time, would bring home the gold as part of Team U.S.A. in the 2018 Winter Olympics, where she had the most ice-time of any of the other members. A subsequent showing in 2022 in Beijing would see the team win the silver medal, with Keller pulling second most ice-time of anyone on the team.

Watching his niece play has been an exhilarating experience for Dave, who said for many years, the full-breadth of her talent was kind of under wraps to him due to the humbleness of Keller and her parents.

United States' Megan Keller (5) challenges with Sweden's Nicole Hall (89) during a women's ice hockey semifinal game between the United States and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

“In 2018 when they beat Canada, that was an amazing feeling, because that was the first time they had beaten Canada in like 20 years in the gold medal game. Our kids were in high school at the time, so they stayed home from school to watch the game. It was like, they’re not going to school, they’re watching their cousin play hockey in the gold medal game,” he said.

Even school teachers would turn the games on for their students, Dave said.

That excitement has stayed strong throughout Keller’s career among family and friends, alike.

“She has worked very hard, and does an excellent job. We are very proud of her for making it this far,” said maternal grandfather, Wayne Winner.

For Wayne and his wife, Lou, Keller’s Olympic games were far and away much more anticipated than the recent Super Bowl.

Sweden's Thea Johansson (23) challenges with United States' Megan Keller (5) during a women's ice hockey semifinal game between the United States and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

“We’ve been looking forward to, and waiting for this for quite some time, and now it’s finally here. My other two daughters left this morning from Atlanta to fly over to be there with her,” he said.

“She’s a good girl, a good athlete, and she knows what she’s doing. She’s been skating since three years old, so this has been her goal,” Wayne said.

“For the past five days, I’ve been getting calls and text messages from people that haven’t reached out to me in a couple years, and they’re like, ‘hey, I’ve been watching your niece play, she’s great, we love watching her, and I’m very appreciative of that,” Dave said.

“It’s been very uplifting to hear from all these people and even some of their friends that they got together, and are watching Meg play. It just makes you feel good inside that there’s so much support for her. To me, it’s great that she has roots from this area, and she represents the country, and they feel that connection,” he said.

“And she’s just as good of a person as she is a hockey player, which I’m very proud of,” he said, stressing that unless someone had seen her play or brought it up in conversation, Keller is not the kind to brag about her accomplishments.

But Keller has used her platform to give back to the community and help strengthen the world of girl’s sports.

“In the summertime, she does two or three camps in Michigan for young girls. She loves doing them and building the sport of women’s hockey. She’s quite the ambassador for young girls that want to play hockey,” Dave said.

“When we went to Buffalo in November to see the U.S. play Canada in a rivalry game, it was just so heartfelt to see all these little girls just admire her and what she does for them, and she signed all the autographs and the pictures, and it just made me so proud to see her give back and try to grow the sport,” he said.

When not competing on the world stage, Keller plays as a Captain for the professional women’s hockey team, the Boston Fleet.

Looking to the future, Dave said Keller has an eye toward the 2030 Winter Olympic games.

“There’s a great possibility that she could play four years from now, in another Olympics, and after that, it wouldn’t surprise me if she transitioned into coaching at some point,” he said, adding that the possibilities are endless.

“She just loves the sport and loves to be around it. And she’s very well spoken when she does interviews, so I could definitely see her doing some type of commentary somewhere in some way, in hockey,” he said.