NWSL players make 2024 U.S. Olympic Women's Soccer Team
- Ashley Downey
- Jun 27, 2024
- 3 min read
The stage is set for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and 12 NWSL players are on the Women's Soccer Team roster.
GOALKEEPERS:
Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage)
DEFENDERS:
Tierna Davidson (NJ/NY Gotham FC)
Emily Fox (Arsenal FC, ENG)
Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC)
Casey Krueger (Washington Spirit)
Jenna Nighswonger (NJ/NY Gotham FC)
Emily Sonnett (NJ/NY Gotham FC)
MIDFIELDERS:
Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain, FRA)
Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC)
Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA)
Rose Lavelle (NJ/NY Gotham FC)
Catarina Macario (Chelsea FC, ENG)
FORWARDS:
Crystal Dunn (NJ/NY Gotham FC)
Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit)
Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego Wave FC)
Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC)
Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars)
Alternates:
Goalkeeper Jane Campbell
Midfielder Hal Hershfelt
Midfielder Croix Bethune
Forward Lynn Williams
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. will open Group B play on July 25 – one day before the Opening Ceremonies – against Zambia.
Below are roster notes from US Soccer:
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.