Original article posted on USSoccer.com.
CHICAGO (June 26, 2024) – U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Emma Hayes has named the 18-player roster plus four alternates for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Just eight players who were on the USA’s roster for the 2020 Olympics (which was played in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) make a return this summer while 10 players who were members of the USA’s 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Team were named to the final roster for Paris.
2024 U.S. OLYMPIC WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION (CAPS/GOALS):
Note: Cal South alumni in red.
GOALKEEPERS (2): Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 19), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 104)
DEFENDERS (6): Tierna Davidson (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 58/3), Emily Fox (Arsenal FC, ENG; 49/1), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC; 32/0), Casey Krueger (Washington Spirit; 49/0), Jenna Nighswonger (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 9/2), Emily Sonnett (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 91/2)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain, FRA; 11/0), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC; 17/1), Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA; 148/35), Rose Lavelle (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 100/24), Catarina Macario (Chelsea FC, ENG; 19/8)
FORWARDS (5): Crystal Dunn (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 147/25), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit; 38/7), Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego Wave FC; 14/7), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC; 48/19), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars; 92/34)
Alternates: Goalkeeper Jane Campbell, midfielder Hal Hershfelt, midfielder Croix Bethune and forward Lynn Williams.
“Making an Olympic roster is a huge privilege and an honor and there is no denying that it was an extremely competitive process among the players and that there were difficult choices, especially considering how hard everyone has worked over the past 10 months,” said Hayes. “Choosing an 18-player roster plus alternates involved many considerations, but I am excited for the group we have selected and I’m looking forward to building on the work from last camp as we head into the Send-Off matches and then onto France. These are great opportunities for us to continue to show the progress we are making.”
The 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team will come together for the first time on July 8 in New Jersey in preparation to face Mexico on July 13 (3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV, Telemundo, Universo, Max and Peacock) at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J in the Impact 99 Legacy Match, presented by New York Life. The USA will then head to the nation’s capital for the 2024 Send-Off Match, presented by Coca-Cola, on July 16 against Costa Rica at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. (7:30 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV, Universo, Max and Peacock).
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the eighth Olympic Games to feature women’s soccer, the U.S. will open Group B play on July 25 – one day before the Opening Ceremonies – against Zambia (9 p.m. local / 3 p.m. ET) at Stade de Nice in Nice. The Americans will then play Germany on July 28 (9 p.m. local / 3 p.m. ET) at Marseille’s Stade de Marseille in their second match and finish group play against Australia on July 31 (7 p.m. local / 1 p.m. ET), also in Marseille. Located in the south of France, Nice is nearly 600 miles from Paris near France’s border with Monaco and Italy. Marseille, located 125 miles west of Nice, is the second-largest city in France.
Prior to the naming of this roster, 19 USWNT players had previously made three or more Olympic Teams. Add to that list three-time Olympians Alyssa Naeher, Crystal Dunn and Lindsey Horan.
Defenders Tierna Davidson, Emily Sonnett and Casey Krueger, midfielders Rose Lavelle and Catarina Macario and forward Mallory Swanson make their second Olympic Teams. Krueger and Macario were initially named as alternates for the 2020 Olympics, but when rosters were expanded from 18 to 22 due to the pandemic, they were officially added to the team. Each played a few minutes in one match. Swanson was not named to the Olympic roster in 2021 but did play in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil at the age of 18.
The first-time Olympians are goalkeeper Casey Murphy, defenders Emily Fox, Naomi Girma and Jenna Nighswonger, midfielders Korbin Albert and Sam Coffey and forwards Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Jaedyn Shaw. For Nighswonger, Albert, Coffey and Shaw, the 2024 Paris Olympics will be their first senior level world championship.
Hayes also named four alternate players who will travel to France and train with the team for the duration of the Olympics in goalkeeper Jane Campbell, uncapped midfielders Hal Hershfelt and Croix Bethune and forward Lynn Williams. Campbell was also the alternate goalkeeper for the 2020 Olympics in Japan before being moved to the active roster due to the Covid-19 roster expansion. Both Hershfelt and Bethune came into their first USWNT camp in June – which was also the first camp for Hayes – Bethune as a training player and Hershfelt as a member of the full roster, though she did not see action in either match against Korea Republic. Williams was a member of the USA’s 2020 Olympic Team and 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Team. She is by far the most experienced alternate with 63 caps and 18 career goals. Williams, the all-time leading scorer in the National Women’s Soccer League, scored in the 2020 Olympic quarterfinal against the Netherlands.
The USA won the inaugural Olympic gold medal for women’s soccer in 1996 in Atlanta, won silver in 2000 in Sydney and then won three straight golds, standing atop the podium in Athens, Greece in 2004, Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. The USA fell in the quarterfinals in penalty kicks in 2016 and earned a bronze medal in 2021. The USWNT is 24W-4L-7D all-time in Olympic competition.
2024 U.S. OLYMPIC WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM ROSTER NOTES:
- The Olympic roster is broken down by position into two goalkeepers, six defenders, five midfielders and five forwards, but numerous players on the roster can and have played multiple positions for the USA.
- The eight players who return from the 2020 Olympic Team are goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, defenders Tierna Davidson, Casey Krueger and Emily Sonnett, midfielders Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle and Catarina Macario and forward Crystal Dunn.
- Horan and Dunn have the most Olympic appearances coming into the tournament with 10 each. Horan, Dunn, Lavelle and Mallory Swanson all have scored once in the Olympic Games. Swanson and Dunn scored in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil while Horan and Lavelle scored in Japan in 2021.
- The 18-player roster has an average age of 26.8, which is the fourth-youngest roster the USA has ever sent to the Olympics and the youngest since 2008. The average age of the 2020 Olympic Team was 30.8 years old.
- The U.S. Women’s National Team has competed in every Olympic women’s soccer tournament ever contested and will be making its eighth all-time appearance this summer.
- The roster averages 58 caps per player heading into the two Send-Off Matches, has a combined 43 matches of Olympic experience and four Olympic goals. The 2020 Olympic Team averaged 111 international caps per player heading into the two Send-Off Matches in July of 2021 and had a combined total of 77 Olympic appearances with 17 Olympic goals entering the Tokyo Games.
- Four of the 18 players on the roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics have 100+ caps, led by Horan with 148. Dunn has 147 international appearances followed by Alyssa Naeher (104 caps) and Lavelle (100). There were nine players on the 2020 Olympic Team with more than 100 caps.
- The least capped player on the roster is Jenna Nighswonger, who has played nine times for the USA. Korbin Albert has 11 caps.
- At the 2020 Olympics, a 22-year-old Davidson was the youngest player on the roster, a distinction she also held at the 2019 World Cup. At this Olympics, the youngest player is 19-year-old Jaedyn Shaw. She is the fifth-youngest player and fifth teenager ever named to a U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team. Cindy Parlow, Swanson, Tiffany Roberts and Heather O’Reilly are the only younger Olympians in USWNT history.
- There are five players on the roster from California (Tierna Davidson, Naomi Girma, Nighswonger, Catarina Macario and Trinity Rodman) with three from Colorado (Horan, Sophia Smith and Swanson) and two players each hailing from New York (Sam Coffey and Dunn) and Illinois (Albert and Casey Krueger).
- Of the 16 field players on the roster, only Girma, Albert and Krueger have yet to score an international goal.
- Fourteen of the 18 players on the roster have played for the USA in a FIFA Women’s World Cup at the youth level.
- There are 14 NWSL players on the roster and they come from just six clubs: five from NJ/NY Gotham FC and two each from the Chicago Red Stars, Portland Thorns FC, San Diego Wave FC and Washington Spirit. Murphy is the lone representative from the North Carolina Courage.
- The other four players compete for European clubs and two – Horan and Albert – will return to France where they play their club soccer for rivals Olympique Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain, respectively. Macario (Chelsea FC) and Fox (Arsenal FC) ply their trades in England’s Women’s Super League, though Macario began her international career with Lyon in 2021 and won a UEFA Women’s Champions League title with the perennial French powers.
- 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Team member Alyssa Thompson and defenders Kate Wiesner and Emily Sams will serve as training players during the USA’s training camp in New Jersey leading up to the match against Mexico on July 13. This is Sams’ first call-up to the senior team.
