Years before Caroline “KK” Harvey became an Olympic hockey player at age 19 and the world’s best defender at 20, she regularly punched the speed bag and the heavy bag.
Harvey’s early boxing training — some time around ages 10-13, her dad said — included a stint at Ramalho’s West End Gym in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The facility was a setting for the “The Fighter,” a Best Picture-nominated 2010 film based on the true story of professional boxer Micky Ward.
A young Harvey impressed Dicky Eklund, Ward’s half-brother and trainer whom Christian Bale won an Oscar for portraying.