During Women’s History Month, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss various women in sports to highlight how far we have come! For this week, we will talk about the Triple Espresso: Sophia Wilson (formally Smith), Trinity Rodman, and Mallory Swanson (formally Pugh) and the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) overall.
These three women earned the name Triple Espresso from their exciting and influential impact during the 2024 Summer Olympics, playing for the USWNT. To begin, I thought it would be appropriate to give a brief history of this program.
This team was founded in 1985 and played in their first World Cup in 1991. This tournament featured truly iconic players, such as Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers-Stahl, Kristine Lilly, and Julie Foudy. Winning again in 1999, the USWNT had proven themselves as a worthy team. Between these two wins, they won gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The USWNT has won the Women’s World Cup 4 times (most in Women’s World Cup history) and the Olympics 5 times (also the most in Women’s Olympics history).
The 2015 Women’s World Cup final is an important part of this team’s history – it showed that they were able to talk their talk AND back it up with play. In 2016, just months after winning the World Cup, multiple players filed a case with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the USSF. Star and crucial players Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo, and Becky Sauerbrunn (all who have since retired from professional soccer) made their concerns with wage and conditions compared to the men’s counterpart. The fight for equal pay resulted in the team receiving a lot of attention, much bad, and a lot of criticism – especially after losing to Sweden in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympics. After their 2019 World Cup win against the Netherlands, the team had, once again, shown how dominant they were. Although the U.S. Soccer Federation agreed on a settlement that allowed the women and men teams to be paid equally, the team has still received a lot of backlashes, often being called ‘too political’. After their short-lived time in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the media was tearing them to shreds.
After a coaching switch, the team began to prepare for the 2024 Olympics, where they desperately needed to perform well, and they absolutely did. All the named forwards on the roster were Black women, which is the first time in history that has ever happened before.
The Triple Espresso scored 10 of the teams 12 goals in the tournament, which outscored every other nation in the tournament. Swanson led with 4 goals and 2 assists, followed by Wilson with 3 goals and 2 assists and Rodman with 3 goals and 1 assist. These three have been the frontline for a while, and I suspect their time together is far from over.
A lot of young players debuted in the 2024 Olympics for the USWNT, and another standout player, the Secretary of Defense herself, Naomi Girma. Girma plays center back and was an absolute menace for the other teams. During her first Olympic Games, she played with so much composure and maturity in the backline. She never panicked and was very calm in stressful situations. She is also a player to watch in the upcoming years.
This trio was very exciting to watch during one of the biggest sporting events. With no dull moments, and lots of strong women to look up to, the Triple Espresso is far from tiring out.