Quantico, Virginia. (April 9, 2025): To persist, one must continue to struggle despite difficulties, setbacks, or opposition. The embodiment of this trait can be found in Marine Corps Captain Riley Tejcek. In this photo by Lance Corporal Ethan Miller, Tejcek high-fives a child during a reading of her new children’s book, "If You Can Dream It, Be It", as part of the Month of the Military Child observance.
Authoring a book is just one of the many extraordinary accomplishments of Tejcek who was named 2021 Female Marine Athlete of the Year and won a place on the U.S. Olympic national bobsledder team. Hailing from a military family, she grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana where she earned a softball scholarship to George Washington University. After graduation, she was commissioned in the Marines in 2019 and assigned to Camp Pendleton as a logistics officer. In the fall of 2020, she tried out in Colorado for a spot as the pilot of a two-woman bobsled.
Juggling her year-round commitments with the Marines, Tejcek traveled to Lake Placid, New York for training and flew across North America and Europe to compete in the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation series. After a successful 2023-2024 campaign, Tejcek qualified for the two-woman bobsled competition in this month’s World Cup at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run.
While balancing a full-time military career and training for the Olympic team, she still found time to author a children’s book on… Persistence. The book is about a little girl trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. She is being pressured from family and friends to pick a specific career, so she interviews key people in her life for advice. The book stresses envisioning a desired outcome and the importance of having dreams and aspirations. Just as important, the girl learns she must do more than dream by taking steps to make them a reality. In the end, the little girl decides to become a Marine, a pageant winner, and an Olympic athlete.
Tejcek has dreams of becoming a Marine Corps Recruiter and it is a fairly good bet she will succeed - remarkable.