USWNT overcomes year of change to win Olympic gold again: ‘I’m just blown away’
PARIS — As the final whistle blew, Crystal Dunn thankfully fell to her knees and pounded her fists into the grass. The bench emptied onto the field, the stadium — fans eagerly awaiting a fifth Olympic gold medal — erupted. But at that moment, Dunn was alone, reflecting on her own journey to this point.
“You think about all the sacrifices you’ve made,” she said. “Yes, this match is tough, but it’s not just this match. It’s everything you’ve been through. It’s the whole tournament, the buildup.”
For Dunn, it’s not just the buildup to the final year after the program suffered a historically disastrous early exit from the 2023 World Cup. It’s not just the last three months, when new head coach Emma Hayes was finally installed at the helm of the U.S. women’s national team program. For Dunn, the player with the longest history with the senior national team, it’s everything she’s experienced since 2013. The selections she made, the selections she didn’t make. The tournaments she won, and more often, the tournaments she didn’t. The highs and lows. The injuries. The comebacks. All of it.
And on Saturday night at the Parc des Princes — with sacrifice and build-up behind her, a 1-0 victory over Brazil on the scoreboard, 106 minutes under her weary legs — Dunn finally stood on the Olympic podium, a gold medal on her chest.
As the team waited to be honored, they talked among themselves: what would they do when they were standing there? They were supposed to do something as a team, right? Not just walk up there and stand? The Germans were introduced as bronze medalists. Then the Brazilians with the same treatment for silver. Finally, 12 minutes and much discussion later, the gold medalists were asked to take the stage. The Americans held hands, threw them in the air and bowed. It wasn’t entirely in unison, a subtle and fitting reminder that this is a team and group of players not necessarily practiced at standing on podiums and accepting medals. They turned and waved to the fans behind them and then back to the front where their names were read. One by one, the players were presented with their gold medals.
Hayes stood watching on the left. The field was finally sheltered from the sun that had been scorching it all day, and Hayes, in her black suit, couldn’t take her eyes off her team.
Hayes led the U.S. to gold after 10 games as coach. (Photo by Justin Setterfield, Getty Images)
Seventy-nine days ago, she announced this Olympic squad. Seventy-two days ago, she had her first Olympic training. And now they were back on the podium, a place that had eluded more experienced, more cohesive, more famous American squads than the ones she had assembled. But none of those teams since 2012 had gotten the job done the way this one had.
She raised her fist to her team.
That U.S. women’s soccer is back here may not come as a surprise to anyone. But that it was this group, this coach, and most impressively, this speed, is nothing short of incredible. In Hayes’ 10th game leading the group, they are Olympic champions again.
The last time the Americans were on the Olympic stage — at the 2012 London Games — there was no NWSL in the United States. Women’s Professional Soccer, the most recent league in the states, had announced its suspension eight months earlier. The youngest member of the team — 19-year-old Jaedyn Shaw — had just finished kindergarten. Captain Lindsay Horan had just opted to forgo her college career, a rare decision for American women at the time, to sign with Paris Saint-Germain. And Hayes had been named Chelsea Women’s new manager during that Olympic break.
A year and four days before this team reclaimed Olympic gold, the Americans suffered their earliest ever international tournament exit — a penalty shootout loss to Sweden in the round of 16 at the World Cup. After the game, Horan said the team didn’t get the best out of each individual. They weren’t fully prepared, players were tense and “just not enjoying their soccer or not enjoying the individual game,” she said last year on “The RE-CAP Show.”
A year after their World Cup split, the U.S. national team showed just how far they’ve come. (Photo by Quinn Rooney, Getty Images)
Then Megan Rapinoe retired, as did Julie Ertz. Two of the nation’s most important players were gone. When Hayes announced her Olympic roster last month, it didn’t include other team cornerstones; neither Alex Morgan nor Becky Sauerbrunn made the cut. The rotation was fluid, and the 18-man roster included only three players — Dunn, Alyssa Naeher and Rose Lavelle — who had previously played in a major tournament final. Those three helped the U.S. win the 2019 World Cup.
In the midst of the major tournament win drought that followed, they were criticized. They went through three head coaching changes, which led to more criticism. And when Hayes came in, the players said they started playing with more joy and that they radiated it. They were criticized even for that.
“This team has been through a lot,” Trinity Rodman said. “Different coaches, losses, just off the field. And to be here now — such a great group, such a great coach. I’m just in awe of how hard everyone has worked to get here.”
Rodman, 22, was one of the youngest players named to this latest roster and part of a three-man scoring machine along with Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson — nicknamed “Triple Espresso” — that has reinvigorated an offensive energy that the USWNT has lacked in recent iterations. The trio scored or assisted on 11 of the team’s 12 goals at the Olympics, with each shining in turn in the knockout rounds.
First it was Rodman in overtime against Japan in the quarterfinals. Next up was Smith in overtime against Germany in the semifinals. And finally it was Swanson in the final. She had a chance in the first half and didn’t capitalize, so when the perfect ball came through in the 57th minute, she yelled at Smith (who was offside) to get out of the way. (“It was scary,” Smith joked, “I didn’t see her coming until she screamed.”)
Rodman had told herself she wouldn’t cry if they won, and she broke that promise almost immediately. She said she was especially happy for everyone — for Naeher, who despite her incredible play is often overlooked because of her quiet nature; for Swanson, whose injury 18 months ago kept her out of action for 11 months, including the World Championships; for Naomi Girma, whose tenacity on the back line has made everyone look better this entire journey.
The US cried tears of joy after beating Brazil in the Olympic final. (Photo by John Todd, Getty Images)
They cried. They cheered. They hugged each other and Hayes. They even ran past their own security to comfort their families in the front row of the stadium.
The American women are champions again. In journeys both long and short, in battles both open and hidden, they have reached the top of the Olympic podium.
“I always believe this team can do absolutely anything,” Dunn said. “When we’re at our best, when we’re clicking, when everything is firing on all cylinders, I truly believe this team can be unstoppable, but it’s not easy. It’s about showing up every day and really believing in the system and the players.”
When they all stood on the podium, gold medals in tow, they danced and laughed. Perhaps some didn’t see them land here, didn’t see this turnaround. But here they are now on a journey that is wholly and uniquely, and joyfully, their own.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
