Getty ImagesA youthful U.S. squad is back on top of the women's soccer world, and it's only just the beginning
An Olympic Gold Medal is supposed to be a culmination, the paramount payoff, the end goal. Athletes strive their entire careers for the opportunity to display that shiny reward around their necks. It's a lifetime of work distilled down to the most precious of metals – and medals – the ultimate accolade.
Yet tor the U.S. women's national team, Saturday's 1-0 Olympic Gold Medal victory over Brazil in Paris seemed like more than just a culmination or a payoff. This doesn't feel like an ending, but rather just the beginning. This return to the top of the women's soccer world, while certainly triumphant, actually feels more transcendent.
When Emma Hayes named her starting XI for the Gold Medal game, she continued to put her trust in youth. The foundation of this USWNT is a new generation, one that is already starting to match the achievements of its predecessors. Saturday's final was the sixth gold medal game for the USWNT (out of eight Olympics in which women's soccer was contested), and they've now won five. The history is undeniable: The USWNT has the most Olympic gold and most total medals in the history of the Games, now having won five golds, one silver and one bronze.
Expectations can often be impossible to live up to. This team? They exceeded them.
And in part, that's because this is a group that was raised with those expectations, a collection of athletes that stands on the shoulders of pioneers. They'll know that because they watched them. Of the 11 players in the USWNT starting lineup in the Olympic final, eight are 26 or younger. Of the 22 total players on the squad, 14 were born after women's soccer was even introduced to the Olympics in 1996. Youth is served, indeed.
This Olympic Gold Medal is a reward, yes. It's the end result of a summer's-worth of hard work from both these young players and this coaching staff. It's also a statement to the rest of the world: there's more to come. This USWNT is young, hungry and ambitious. So now the question is this: who's going to stop them?
“Winning’s in my DNA," said Hayes, who joined Anson Dorrance as the only coaches in USWNT history to win every match in their first major tournament. "I’m used to being in finals, I’m used to competing for trophies. And so is the U.S. women’s national team. We are so excited at our potential. And we are so looking forward to things we can do together.
“Of course we like this gold medal. But it doesn’t mean it ends there. We want so much more for ourselves because we’re competitors. We’re just at the beginning.”
