On November 25th, FIFA announced the nominees for their annual Football Awards, which will take place on December 17th 2020. It will be the first awards held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The window to be considered is based on what was done between July 8th, 2019 to October 8th, 2020, which eliminates any performances from the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Below are the nominees for player of the year and a summary of their accomplishments.

 

THE BEST FIFA WOMEN’S PLAYER
1. Lucy Bronze – England – Olympique Lyonnais & Manchester City

Lucy Bronze won the UEFA Champions League with Lyon, helping the club win its fifth consecutive Champions League. Bronze also won the Division 1 Féminine league title and the Coupe de France with Lyon before returning to Manchester City, where she is now an integral part of their starting XI.


2. Delphine Cascarino – France – Olympique Lyonnais

Delphine Cascarino won the treble with Olympique Lyon — the Champions League, the Division 1 Féminine, and the Coupe de France. She was named Player of the Match in the Champions League Final, as she controlled the game by setting up the first two goals that Lyon scored.

3. Caroline Graham Hansen – Norway – Barcelona

Caroline Graham Hansen won two trophies with Barcelona, winning the Primera División and the very first edition of the Supercopa de España Femenina. Hansen also helped lead Barcelona to the semifinals of the Champions League and was included as part of UEFA’s Squad of the Season.


4. Pernille Harder – Denmark – VfL Wolfsburg & Chelsea

Pernille Harder led VfL Wolfsburg to the Champions League Final, and she won the UEFA Champions League Forward of the Season title due to her efforts throughout the competition. She won the Women’s Footballer of the Year in Germany after winning both the Frauen-Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal Frauen with Wolfsburg, serving as the team’s top scorer with 38 goals in 33 appearances. Harder joined Chelsea earlier this year after signing a contract for a world-record fee for a women’s player.

5. Jennifer Hermoso – Spain – Barcelona 

Jennifer Hermoso won the double with Barcelona in her first year at the club – the Primera División and the Supercopa de España Femenina. She was also the Primera División’s top goalscorer during the 2019/20 season, winning the award for the second consecutive year and for the fourth time in her career.


6. Ji So-yun – South Korea – Chelsea

Ji So-yun won two trophies with Chelsea, the FAWSL league title and the FA Women’s League Cup, bringing her tally to eight trophies won with the club since signing in 2014. Ji was also part of the PFA Team of the Year and was a finalist for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year.

7. Sam Kerr – Australia – Chelsea 

Sam Kerr managed to win her third consecutive NWSL Golden Boot in her last season at Chicago Red Stars, with 18 goals scored, an NWSL record. She was also named the league’s Most Valuable Player. Her move to England saw her win the double with Chelsea in her first season at the club.

8. Saki Kumagai – Japan – Olympique Lyon

Saki Kumagai was a part of Olympique Lyon’s treble-winning team, winning the Division 1 Féminine, the Coupe de France, and the Champions League. Her efforts in the Champions League, including a goal in the final against VfL Wolfsburg, led her to be named to UEFA’s Squad of the Season. Her efforts at both the club and international level also saw her win the Asian Women’s Footballer of the Year in December 2019.

9. Dzsenifer Marozsán – Germany – Olympique Lyon

Dzsenifer Marozsán was also an integral part of Lyon’s treble-winning season. After the Champions League Final, she was awarded UEFA Champions League Midfielder of the Season. She also won the 2020 Algarve Cup with Germany.

10. Vivianne Miedema – Netherlands – Arsenal

Vivianne Miedema has taken Arsenal to the next level with her goal-scoring prowess. Despite Arsenal only reaching the quarter-finals in the Champions League, Miedema finished as the competition’s top scorer with ten goals. She was also the FAWSL’s top goalscorer during the 2019/20 season with 16 goals. Miedema was integral in Arsenal’s 11-1 win against Bristol City in December 2019, which was the largest victory in the history of the league. During the match, Miedema was involved in ten of Arsenal’s 11 goals with six goals and four assists.

11. Wendie Renard – France – Olympique Lyon

Wendie Renard’s leadership in her central defender role was a massive part of why Olympique Lyon was able to win the treble, so much so that she was named the UEFA Champions League Defender of the Season. The three trophies Renard won this year with Lyon upped her total number of trophies won with the club to 33.

FIFA also shortlisted six goalkeepers for The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper award and seven coaches for The Best FIFA Women’s coach.

Three finalists from each category will be announced on December 11th, one week before the awards ceremony, with voting open to the public until December 9th.

Vote here.

MATCH INFO:

United States 2, Netherlands 0

GOALS:

Rose Lavelle (Christen Press), 41’

Kristie Mewis (Lynn Williams), 70’

A grueling 261 days have passed since the U.S. women’s national team last took the pitch. As you may imagine, Friday afternoon’s friendly was widely anticipated for more reasons than one — yes, the match marked the long-awaited return of the USWNT, but even more thrilling was the opportunity to witness a rematch of last year’s World Cup Final between the U.S. and the Netherlands.

The game took place in Rat Verleigh Stadium in Breda, with the U.S. once again winning comfortably by a score of 2-0 thanks to goals from Rose Lavelle and Kristie Mewis.

Prior to the match, USWNT players released a statement on their social media accounts, highlighting what an honor it was to represent America and that it was their subsequent duty to demand that the liberties and freedoms that the country was founded upon be extended to everyone. As the national anthem played, each USWNT player donned a pullover with the message “Black Lives Matter,” with a majority of players taking a knee to further convey their stance against racial injustice.

“Today, we wear Black Lives Matter to affirm human decency. We protest against racial injustice and police brutality against Black people,” the statement read. “We protest against the racist infrastructures that do not provide equal opportunity for black and brown people to fulfill their dreams, including playing on this team. As the United States Women’s National team players, we collectively work toward a society where the American ideals are upheld, and Black lives are no longer systemically targeted.”

Here’s how the action unfolded:

The United States wasted no time after the opening whistle blew. With only one minute gone in the first half, Tobin Heath took the ball to the goal line, slotting a cross intended for Lynn Williams who made herself available in the box. Despite Williams’ best attempt to get a foot on the ball, her line of sight was restricted by the Dutch defense, leading to the demise of a near chance for the Americans. Later, in the 18th minute, Williams would take advantage of another scoring chance, curving a shot from outside the eighteen that sailed just over the crossbar.

In the 29th minute, Tobin Heath slipped a through ball to Christen Press, who utilized her quick footwork to beat Dutch goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal and score what would have been the go-ahead goal the U.S. had been desperately working towards. Unfortunately, Press was called offside by what seemed a mere step, and the goal was scratched, maintaining the 0-0 deadlock.

The deadlock would not last much longer, however, as Christen Press placed a ball into the path of Rose Lavelle, who neatly cut the ball to her left foot, rendering Dutch defender Dominique Bloodworth off balance. Lavelle then ripped a shot from just inside the eighteen and into the upper ninety, scoring her third national team goal of the year to put the United States up 1-0 as the first half wound to a close. (Hopefully Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor took note of how lethal Lavelle can be when she plays in her actual position.)

Her goal even received a nod from the FA Women’s Super League:

The hero of the second half was none other than Kristie Mewis, who returned to the pitch for the U.S. women’s national team for the first time since 2014 after a standout year with the Houston Dash. Replacing Rose Lavelle in the 60th minute, Mewis made an instant impact — in the form of receiving a through ball from Lynn Williams in stride, taking a few touches and scoring her second-ever national goal to give the United States a 2-0 advantage through 70 minutes of play.

First to congratulate her on such an achievement? Her younger sister Sam, of course. Let’s add watching the Mewis duo in action to the list of things to look forward to next year, shall we?

Finally, in what was nearly an astounding finish in an already-incredible performance for the United States, Midge Purce set Alex Morgan up just outside the eighteen. In a showcase of her skill on the ball, Morgan slipped the ball past Veenendaal and into the net, scoring her first goal since her return to play following the birth of her daughter.

However, Morgan’s goal met a similar fate to that of Christen Press’ earlier in the match and was called offsides, restricting the United States’ lead to two goals.

As the clock wound down, the Dutch worked desperately to cut the United States’ lead in half, but no dice, as the States secured yet another 2-0 victory over the Netherlands, matching the score of last year’s World Cup Final.

Given that the USWNT has not played a match together in over eight months, both the win and team performance in the friendly show immense promise for the future — not to mention both goals came from players who could be serious contributors next year and thereafter.

Though it’s uncertain exactly when we will get to see the U.S. women’s national team take the field again, it was refreshing to witness a team beloved by so many indicate that they are ready to pick up right where they left off — by cementing their status as the best in the world.

Stephanie Gilmore fell in love with surfing at a very young age. Even in grade school, it was her first thought when waking up, and her last thought before falling asleep. With any shift in the wind, the young Australian would immediately wonder what it meant for the waves at the legendary surf spots she frequented with her dad and sisters near her home on the Gold Coast.

In a recent conversation with Kelley O’Hara on the Just Women’s Sports podcast, Gilmore calls her early relationship with surfing a “healthy addiction.” This obsession, combined with a zest for putting on a show and a natural ease with competition, resulted in record-breaking success when she eventually started competing. In 2007, at 19 years of age, she won the World Title in her debut season on the World Surfing League tour. (The WSL is the annual pro tour where the top 17 female and 34 male surfers compete against each other in events around the world over the course of 10 months.) No man or woman had ever won the championship their rookie year.

Gilmore went on to add three more consecutive World Titles, making it four in a row for the young superstar. Over the last decade, she has added three more to her trophy case, tying her with legend Layne Beachley for the most women’s World Titles in history.

When asked by O’Hara which championship was the most rewarding of her career, there was no hesitation. It was Gilmore’s fifth title, in 2012, which came just two years after she was physically assaulted by a stranger outside her home during the Christmas holidays.

Up until this traumatic event, competition had always been full of joy and ease for Gilmore. She loved the performance factor. Doing tricks on her boogie board as a kid, she’d be hoping the swimmers and sunbathers around her were riveted by her sweet skills. When journalists routinely asked where her competitive fire came from, she would recall her imagined boogie board glory.

“It’s more of a performance thing that I really love,” she tells O’Hara, “It’s going out there on that stage and having a moment to really shine and impress people.”

She was also unashamedly confident in the vision she had for herself. At 14 years of age, she raced out of school one day to watch her idols compete in a pro event at her home beach, where she felt an overwhelming intuition that she belonged out on the waves.

She tells O’Hara she remembers thinking, “I can win. Just put me in that event right now, I will smash these girls.”

Three years later, qualifying for that same event with a wildcard spot, she did exactly that, winning first place as a 17-year-old amateur.

Once she was a full-time professional surfer, Gilmore never understood why her fellow competitors often set goals to only finish in the top ten or top five. For Gilmore, there was only ever one worthwhile goal: to be number one. She (literally and figuratively) rode this wave of confidence, skill, and competitive joy to those first four World Titles. Then, she was randomly attacked.

The assault occurred on December 27, 2010, just a couple weeks after cementing her fourth World Title. She was walking back to her apartment after plans to see a movie with a friend fell through. As she approached the stairs to her building, a stranger ran up behind her and hit her twice with a metal bar. The first blow was to her head, and she immediately saw blood everywhere. The second broke the wrist of the arm she had raised to shield herself.

Luckily, her relatives who also lived in the complex heard her scream and came running out. The man fled but was caught and arrested later that night. Over the next several weeks, Gilmore tried to process and cope with what happened. With her wrist in a cast, she spent those weeks away from surfing.

“It fully rattled my cage,” she tells O’Hara, “It was the first time in my life that I had such a traumatic experience and such a mountain to climb ahead of me.”

While the wrist injury healed in time for her to get back on tour for the first event of the 2011 season, the emotional damage took longer to heal.

“I was questioning my confidence in the ocean. I was questioning just everything,” she confides to O’Hara. After absolutely dominating the previous four seasons, Gilmore dropped to third place in 2011.

Coming back after the break for the 2012 season, Gilmore knew something needed to shift. She’d been putting in the physical and emotional work to heal her demons, but she could no longer feel her carefree and joyful state in competition the way she once had. Then, in the first event of the 2012 season she discovered a grittier, angrier drive to win.

“I remember it was a new competitor in me,” she tells O’Hara, “It was a beast that I hadn’t ever met yet myself. It was almost like I’d built this competitive creature within me and this was the unveiling.”

After spending the first years of her career known on tour as “Happy Gilmore,” she now began tapping into a much more primal and instinctual approach to competition.

“You have to sort of look at your opponents like they’re a piece of meat and you haven’t eaten for a year,” she laughingly tells O’Hara. This new Gilmore beast-mode worked. She won first place in the event and by the end of the year had reclaimed her place atop the tour, winning her fifth and most hard-fought World Title.

Though no one ever wishes for it, overcoming the kind of hardships Gilmore was forced to endure gave her a new perspective on surfing, leading to the most rewarding victory of her career. For Gilmore, World Title number five was the sweetest one yet.

That could change in the near future as she now chases down what would be a record-breaking eighth World Title, as well as the first ever Olympic gold medal ever awarded in the sport when it makes its debut next summer in Tokyo.

Listen to Stephanie Gilmore’s full conversation with Kelley O’Hara on the Just Women’s Sports podcast here.

Catarina Macario is on her way to becoming the face of the U.S. women’s national team. A two-time Hermann Trophy winner and NCAA champion at Stanford University, the Brazilian-born Macario recently acquired American citizenship on the same day she was called into her first full camp with the senior national team.

Now in the Netherlands training with the USWNT, Macario spoke with Just Women’s Sports about her future with the U.S., whether or not she’ll play for Stanford this spring, and what she’s learned about herself off the field this past year.

First of all, huge congrats on becoming a U.S. citizen. We’re all super excited for you. Can you put into words what that moment meant to you given your 8-year journey since moving to San Diego?

I mean, it meant everything. It still means everything to me, because when I first moved to the U.S., obviously as a little girl, you know how amazing and inspiring the women’s national team players are. For so long, I’ve wanted to be able to join them, and not only that, but to be a part of this wonderful country, which I feel is truly my home, despite being born in Brazil. I truly feel more American than Brazilian given the fact that my developmental years were here. I went to high school here, middle school, and everything. So it was the happy ending to a long and challenging journey. But it’s also just the beginning.

I saw your post and I loved how you mentioned the significance of being able to vote in this election and how that was super valuable to you. 

It was the first thing that I asked my officer when she facilitated the ceremony for me. It was the first thing that I wanted to do, because obviously, that is one right that a U.S. citizen has that a permanent resident does not have. Now I can actually voice my concerns, because I am a citizen of this country. So I’m grateful that it came just in time for me to do that.

I don’t know how much you can say about this, but where are you now in the process in terms of being eligible to play for the national team? 

Right now, I’m literally in the final steps. I have my U.S. citizenship, I have my physical passport, which is why I’m in the Netherlands. So now I just need FIFA to approve my waiver, and I guess just confirm so I can switch my naturalization from Brazil to the U.S. And then I’m good to go. I also do not know when that will happen—it can literally happen at any point. So if it comes before Friday, then I would be eligible to play. I’m just going with the flow and regardless of what happens, I’ll be prepared. 

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to play. If not, I still have a wonderful training environment here, and I’m learning so much from everyone and from all the coaches. Even if I have to miss a match, that’s okay, because I am learning so much. I’m just incredibly grateful to be here.

So when Vlatko called you in for this friendly, was his goal just to give you some experience, or is the assumption that you will be in the Olympic mix and eligible to play next summer in Tokyo?

I think his reasoning behind this camp was definitely getting me integrated within the mix and the group, and getting me with the players. It’s good to hear that he is talking about the Olympics and my role in it. I definitely want to be there. I think this camp was really the initial step to having that happen. Again, like I said, if I don’t play this match, it’s totally okay. It’s only a small part of the bigger picture.

It must be a huge confidence boost to hear him talk about that possibility for you. 

Yeah, any player would love to hear their coach talk about his goals for them. The fact that he has that confidence, that I could one, be eligible, and two, be able to play in that environment—that already gives me so much confidence. Now I want to prove to him and the team that I deserve to be here.

Vlatko himself became an American citizen a few years back. Have you had any conversations with him about what it means to be naturalized as an American?

We briefly talked about it, and he just said how happy he was that I was finally able to gain the certificate that essentially is the seal of approval that you actually belong in the U.S. He just said how happy he was for me, and again, the possibility that citizenship will give me and my family, et cetera. And obviously in the soccer aspect of things, just how he cannot wait to finally be able to coach me and just get me in with the group and what not. So we were all really excited for this long process to have finally come to an end. But at the same time, it’s only the beginning. That was our conversation.

Let’s talk about your first camp with the National team, which was last month. We saw a bunch of new faces there, and this was your first time playing with some of these players. What was that experience like?

It was definitely quite the experience. It was almost easier or more welcoming to the point that I knew that there were other new players as well, so I didn’t feel like I was necessarily standing out as that one new college player who is playing with all these wonderful, well-acclimated players. I was just happy to, one, have my teammate Naomi Girma come with me and experience that with me. That was so much fun, especially because it was just a training camp, so you didn’t necessarily have that pressure to make a game day roster or something like that. Everyone was really just going with the flow each day, just trying their best and showing the different things they can do. It was really fun, though Colorado was very cold.

After a few days of camp, did you feel like you got into the swing of things?

To some extent, yes. Initially, I’d say that I definitely struggled with the pace of things. I briefly mentioned on a video that we had with the USWNT media team, for example, that during my first five-on-five, I had Becky Sauerbrunn and Ali Kreiger in my group, players who I obviously look up to and have grown up watching. To have them be in my group was like, “oh my gosh, what is happening.” Everyone just always brings that high intensity. That not only comes from playing already, but just the fact that they’re on the national team and obviously some of the best players in the world. They find a way to always reach the next level. I think for me, it was another level that I had not seen or experienced before. One that I obviously knew that I could reach, but to have had that right out of the gate, was just like oh, wow.

I will say that I definitely struggled for a few minutes and what not. But eventually towards the end of the camp, I felt like I was able to show some great potential. I felt like, one, obviously I wished that I could have done more, that my body was able to do more. But I definitely felt like it’s totally fine. With more training, I’ve got this, you know?

You mentioned the excitement you felt getting to play with Becky and Ali. Were there any other players specifically that you were most excited to go against last camp and now in the Netherlands?

Last camp, obviously, Lindsey Horan, who plays in the midfield. I have been playing midfield for about a year now. I just tried to learn as much from her as I could, on and off the field. She is obviously a wonderful player, and is very welcoming as well. So I was just taking in as much as I could from her. I was trained to keep my ground as well, because I obviously knew that they’re so amazing, but I also knew that I have something to bring to the table, you know? I had that mindset, that obviously I look up to this player a lot, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t belong in this space.

It’s also super cool that you are playing with so many former Stanford players.

Yeah, it’s great. It makes the transition that much smoother. My first camp, Kelley O’Hara would talk a lot with me. Especially on the field. I think because she had gone to Stanford, and had gone through that process, we almost felt closer more quickly. I had already imagined that she was a super cool person, but to have actually come to know her in person just makes it all the better. I definitely feel comfortable around her. It’s just wonderful. Especially this camp, we have even more people as well, with Alanna Cook, Jane Campbell, etc. We definitely have that bond. Even though some of us didn’t play together, we’ll still always look out for each other.

What does your timeline look like for both the national team and Stanford after this trip?

After this trip, the national team will take a break until January camp, and then in terms of Stanford, we have a report date for the end of December, and we’re supposed to start training in the beginning of January. That’s all I have thus far.

How have you been balancing online classes and training? 

Honestly, in some ways it has been a blessing, and at the same time it has been hard. It’s to the point that, for example, if classes had not been online, I would not have been able to go to San Diego and do what I wanted to do. But it’s also very unfortunate, because I miss having that in person instruction, and just getting to know other people through class, and what not. So there are two sides of it.

In terms of training, I’d say that online school has probably made it easier to give me more flexibility, for example, if I want to train in the morning, that’s fine, because I’ll just watch the lecture later. While I feel like in person, my schedule is very structured, to the point that I can only practice during a two or three hour block, because that’s when I don’t have school. In terms of that, I’m very appreciative. I think I’ve been able to really fine tune the things that I wanted to work on. I’ve been able to have more agency in terms of training how I want to train, and focusing on what I want to do. And I mean there isn’t anything that we can do, really.

I’m not going to lie and say it’s not like I wasn’t sad that my season got postponed. But obviously, it is what it is. We have to do what is safe and healthy for everyone. We really just have to look at the things that we can take away from this time.

What have you heard from Stanford in terms of this season? 

To my understanding thus far, we are heading for it. The season will happen, with practice starting February third, if I’m not mistaken. And we start playing games in the beginning of March. So far, we are optimistic despite cases rising. We’ll just have to take it week by week. But I think this time has been good, as they can implement a safer protocol to have athletes return to playing.

There’s been a lot of talk around your professional future, either in the NWSL or Europe. Obviously, if you choose to go the NWSL route, you’re a shoe-in as the first pick. What will go into that decision, and have you set any personal timeline for making it?

Yeah, honestly that is big the question at the moment. It depends what’s happening with college. Obviously, I would love to play with Stanford again. But at the same time, it would be hard for me to play in the Olympics if I’m not playing games, or if I don’t have contact training, which I have already missed out on for essentially a year. If things are looking like they’ll keep getting postponed, or the season will be canceled, then I will definitely have to make a decision in terms of my future.

Thankfully, I’ve been taking many units and will be able to graduate after this quarter. So if I want to graduate now, I can, and I would be able to start my professional career without having to worry that I’m not getting my degree. I’ve always valued both my academic and athletic careers, so I’m just glad that I have finally reached the point where I can chill for now.

Obviously a lot has happened this year. We talked about Covid, there were also the protests over the summer and a contentious election, which we’re still dealing with. How has this year changed who you are off the field? 

I feel like 2020 has gone on for so long. As a person, I think that I’ve been able to take the time to really think of myself as more than an athlete. Especially because, given the pandemic, we have not been able to do as much as we are used to. It has really given me the time to reflect on what is important to me, whether that be Black Lives Matter, or even the election. To me, I’ve just really been able to take this time to think about who I want to be, how I want to use my platform, and the ways in which I want to make my voice heard. Which started with voting, as soon as I got my citizenship.

Despite so many bad things happening this year, I think this has been a great time to reflect. I think that myself and everyone else has a long way to go, but I’m excited for the future. I’m hoping that people will think of this year as an opportunity to reflect on their past selves, and also think about what they want to do going forward, what they want to say, what matters to them. I don’t think this would have been possible without the pandemic, honestly. Even though it’s horrible, there are always some silver linings to everything.

Last question for you. Obviously your first goal is to get through the final step of getting to play with the national team. Once that happens, what’s your ultimate goal with the national team?

Given that the Olympics are right around the corner, my ultimate goal as of now is to obviously make the roster. Ultimately, I think I just want to serve as an example that really anyone can achieve anything. Coming from Brazil, and going through so many obstacles, my goal now is to inspire people. That’s cliché, of course, the “never give up” message. It’s more just, that the things that are in your way will only make you stronger. They are there for a reason. I think for me, my whole life has really been a series of obstacles. If I can do it, then anyone can. And I’m not even saying, “Oh my gosh, I’ve had so many messed up things.” It’s not even that. If you have the determination and that commitment, and really believe in yourself, and you focus on your craft and what matters to you, then anything is possible.

I will carry that mentality going into the next few months leading into the Olympics. I will just work hard, and know that if it happens, it happens. If not, then I’m still going to be super proud of myself for coming this far and trying my hardest. At the end of the day, I won’t be disappointed. It’s going to be okay. We’ll move on from that. In four years, there will be another one. And even before then, there will be the World Cup.

The halfway point of the FAWSL season is approaching, and while the players are away on international duty, coaching staffs are working on their plans for the second half of the season.

Each club has its own goals for the season, whether it is winning the league or simply avoiding relegation. For a team just promoted from the FA Women’s Championship, there are typically two objectives for their first season in the FAWSL: number one, don’t get relegated. Number two, build a team with a strong foundation—so you don’t get relegated in the years to come.

A tough challenge for any coach, but even more so for Gemma Davies, the FAWSL’s youngest manager. Aston Villa steamrolled the Championship last season with Davies at the helm, winning 13 matches and drawing one during their 14 game season, and finishing six points ahead of second-placed Sheffield United. Watching Villa dominate last season made it easy to forget how much the club once struggled, a testament to the work that Davies has done since she joined the club back in 2018.

The FAWSL is proving to be a new challenge for Davies and the team; they currently sit in 10th place with three points, having registered one win and four losses. The good news is that they are not in the relegation zone, nor are they in eleventh, just above relegation. Their one win against Brighton Hove & Albion back in early November has secured their spot above both Bristol City and Tottenham Hotspur. Furthermore, Villa have played one less game than Bristol City and two less than Tottenham, putting Villa in a position where they have the advantage.

Outside of the league, Villa have made positive strides in the Conti Cup, having topped their group after beating Durham 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. They advanced to the knockout rounds, which will see the top eight teams compete for the cup.

The season is a marathon, not a sprint, but Villa’s upcoming four matches in the league may make or break their season. First, they host league leaders, Manchester United, and while Villa goes into the game as massive underdogs, their mentality regarding the match is vital.

Back in 2018, the same fixture occurred, with United beating Villa 12-0. Both teams were still in the Championship back then, and it was one of Davies’ first matches in charge of Aston Villa. The match was the biggest away win of the season and the highest-scoring match of the season for United.

That blowout is now considered a turning point in the recent history of Aston Villa. Davies herself said it was a “stark awakening” which shaped how she approached managing the team. Davies now has a chance to show her growth, with the same fixture two years on from that twelve-goal defeat.

After United, Villa takes on Bristol City and Tottehnham Hotspur in the league. These two matches are of critical importance given that both teams are below Villa in the table; this is an opportunity for Villa to pull further away from the relegation zone. Both their opponents are in poor form, and while it is important that Villa doesn’t get complacent, the team should go into both matches with confidence.

Villa’s fourth match in December will be against West Ham. At the time of writing, West Ham are one point ahead of Villa in the table. This is yet another opportunity for Villa to gain some more points.

Currently, West Ham have lost four of their last five, and they’ve just lost Matt Beard as head coach, who left the club by mutual consent. It remains to be seen as to whether West Ham will have hired a new permanent head coach by then, but even if they do, it takes time for a team to gel under a new manager. The Villa players will have the upper hand in large part because they know their manager’s system so well.

It’s always fascinating to see how promoted teams do in their first season in the top flight. By simply looking at the league table, it would seem like Aston Villa is massively struggling. But the Villans have a string of winnable games, and if those go their way, then Gemma Davies and her team are on their way to becoming a steady presence in the FAWSL.

Morgan Pressel is a professional golf player. At age 18, she became the youngest-ever winner of a LPGA major championship when she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now known as the ANA Inspiration). Earlier in her career, she became the youngest player to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open as a 12-year-old. She has five professional wins and a career-high ranking of fourth in the world. 

Pressel spoke to Just Women’s Sports about her partnership with Wasserman and Orreco, which seeks to provide information on the impact of menstrual cycles on athletic performance. 

(To read an overview of the partnership, click here.) 

I’m sure you first heard about the Orreco partnership from your agent, but I wanted to hear from your perspective how that came about and what was your initial reaction when you heard about it?

For a lot of women, and a lot of female athletes in general, the question of “how can I improve performance by better managing my menstrual cycle” is not something that they think about often. Those words never came out of my mouth before. I was like, Wow! That makes a lot of sense. Why have I never thought of that? I think that women just kind of go about it. They deal with it. It’s a very personal thing in that respect, and not something that’s talked about.

For me personally, I didn’t have any massive debilitating symptoms, but I would know that every month my back would get quite tight and get hard to turn. That’s hard. My timing would go off. I never thought that there would be things that I could actually physically do to help minimize those symptoms and improve my performance. I was very uneducated on it. I think so many women, especially female athletes, are uneducated on what they can do about it.

What is the biggest insight that you’ve learned so far while partnering with Orreco?

The whole idea was so surprising, but it shouldn’t be surprising. It should make 100% sense, but people don’t think about it. It’s understanding exactly what happens in your body through the hormonal changes of your menstrual cycle. And then from there, to be able to understand: Why do we have PMS? What causes that? How do we do our best to mitigate that? For me, a lot of it is eating anti-inflammatory foods. That’s been a really big help for me. I think what’s really great about what Orreco has put together with this FitrWoman app is that it’s all free. Yes, I have worked personally with them to develop a program specifically for me, and it’s still a work in progress every month. But they want to give all women access to this information, which has not been talked about very much before.

Do you think that having more of these conversations would help make discussion about the menstrual cycle’s effect on athletic performance more mainstream? 

Obviously everybody’s different on what they want to talk about, what they want to share, and what they consider to be very personal information. There are parts of the child-bearing process that we like to talk about and some that we don’t. I think the more education that’s out there and the more people are aware of that, especially from the female athletes’ side, the more that can be done to improve your performance around your cycle.

I think it’s going to take time to really get the education out there, because it needs to not be taboo to talk about.

You mentioned eating anti-inflammatory foods around your cycle to help with recovery. Is there anything else in addition to that that you’ve been doing or something that you’ve changed that has directly impacted not only your training, but your recovery as well?

Before I listened to my body, I kind of pushed it away and just kind of pushed through it. But I would say to people—listen to your body more, and take the time when you need it. Make adjustments, because nothing is set in stone. In my career, I’m always traveling to different places, and there’s nothing that is black and white or exactly the same every time. It’s constantly changing and adapting. I have to continually tweak little bits of my preparation.

What does the rest of the year look like for you? In terms of upcoming tournaments and training?

We have about three or four tournaments left for the rest of the year. There will be an off season that’s shorter than usual. Hopefully, next year at some point there will be a little bit more of a return to normalcy. We’re in full training practice mode now. When it comes to the off season, I’ll probably take a little bit of time off especially around the holidays, and then get back to work.

Is there anything else that you wanted to discuss about the Orreco partnership that I didn’t mention?

I think education about it is so important and helpful. It’s really helpful to those who want to be the best, and that’s the majority of female athletes out there. When you’re at the top level, every little bit makes a difference.

Rachel Corsie is a professional soccer player currently playing for Birmingham City FC in the FAWSL while on loan from the Utah Royals in the NWSL. She is also the captain of the Scotland national team.

Are you in lockdown right now? 

Yeah, supposedly, although I would say that it’s fairly loose right now. It’s strange. As footballers, the biggest thing to take from it is that you have a different moral responsibility than the general public. I think there’s a lot of people still bending the rules a little bit. We need to be a little more cautious; If we bend the rules, we’re probably scrutinized more heavily.

I know you said you have to be more careful, but how else does the lockdown impact training and games? Do you have to do more testing or what does that look like?

They have a fairly comprehensive testing regime across the league. You’re tested typically once a week, but that will be increased if you have more than one game a week. It really ensures that people are following the rest of the protocols. I think there’s more work done behind the scenes that we don’t see, because a lot of the clubs now are affiliated with their men’s team, and you need to be careful. With teams overlapping, arriving at the same time using the same facilities, you need to make sure you come in through different entrances and don’t overlap. As players, we probably don’t quite see the full extent of everything being rolled out. I think a lot of work has gone on to make sure that we can continue.

There’s been a few positive tests, but if you think of how many tests have actually been done, there’s been a really low percentage of cases within the game. It’s a privilege to keep on being able to play. Also the wider community, I think, enjoys being able to watch some kind of sport. We’ve grown our audience a bit, because I think people just love watching sports. If there’s live sports on, then they’re going to probably turn it on. I think we need to capitalize on that, but also remember that we have a responsibility to make sure it keeps happening.

That makes sense. You signed with Birmingham City a few months back on loan from Utah. What went into that decision?

I came back [to the US] for the season and we had the Challenge Cup, which was great.

However, at the end of that, I was excited to come home. I’m not someone who’s typically a home person — I’ve played in the U.S. for five and a half years. I’ve lived away from home for 10 years. However, how everything was playing out… the virus and just everyone’s health…. I don’t know, it was just different. So as the Challenge Cup finished, I was looking to spend some time at home. It happened around the same time that they weren’t quite sure how the NWSL was going to use the next couple of months and what game schedules would look like.

What I did know was I was going to have national team games. I was very conscious that I needed to be in an environment that offered competitiveness in both training and game capacity. It was quite clear that while there might be some opportunity for that in the U.S., there wasn’t going to be a lot. I was quite keen to explore options in Europe, particularly in England, because I know a lot of players here and it’s close to home. But it all happened very last minute.

And how has the transition been for the past few months both on and off the field?

Honestly, I hate that whole process. I hate the stress of new loans, new clubs, and change. I’m a real routine person. I know what I like. But on the whole, it’s been pretty smooth. I’m probably fortunate in that I was able to come over quite quickly and find somewhere to stay.

There’s three other Scottish players playing for Birmingham at the moment. So there’s always that little bit of comfort there when you have people who are from the same place that you’re from. I’ve played in youth national teams with Christie Murray, who’s the captain of Birmingham at the moment, since I was 15, 16 years old. When you’ve known someone for almost half your lifetime, then that’s obviously something that can be really comforting.

I think football-wise, I was quite comfortable moving into this environment — knowing the level, the standards, and the type of football that’s played here. I think I was less concerned by that and more apprehensive for the general change in life.

How would you compare the playing style versus the NWSL?

It’s definitely a lot quicker in the U.S. I’m always reluctant to say that, because when you say that people just think, “Oh, the American style is just all about physicality and all about being fast and fit.” I think that’s a disservice to the American style, because I think there’s also some of the most talented technical footballers playing in the NWSL.

I just think that as a whole, the game over there is quicker. Speed of play is definitely quicker. On top of that, in the U.S. you also have the heat in a lot of places. So physically, I think there’s just a much greater challenge in the U.S.

Over here, I think, there’s probably a little bit more analysis done over the tactical side of the game. But again, I don’t want that to sound like it’s not done in the U.S., because there’s certainly a huge component of the game and the NWSL that’s very, very tactical, and there’s teams that are very effective both in possession and out of possession. I just think the biggest difference is that speed of play and the physical demands.

We’ve seen other NWSL players and specifically other Americans going on loan to European teams over the past few months. What do you think that means for FAWSL? 

It’s hard to say. A lot of people look at it and try to generalize: They try to say the league is growing because of it. But I think everyone has gone for different circumstances. I’ve gone for my reasons. It is definitely a reflection that the league is competitive, but I think the league should naturally adopt the fact that it’s growing. I think the growth of the game will come from the continued infrastructure that comes within football and from the FA to make sure that the game grows in the right direction. A lot of things will be impacted more by building a framework that allows the game to grow, instead of just having superstar names.

Do you have any specific personal goals for this season with Birmingham?

I want to come here and perform. I’ve come to a club that is considered one of the smaller clubs, and that puts a different pressure on your game. I’ve enjoyed that. So far, it’s been a really positive experience.

We had a really good month in October and had some great results. That really lifted up everyone. That was just such a powerful message to see and to be part of. In sports, there’s these kinds of moments and roller-coasters — up and downs. I think there’s going to be some of that while I’ll be here, but it’s really powerful to see those big moments with a number of players who are really together and just are so desperate to fight for one another. I just think it’s just a unique kind of challenge.

We’ll have some huge national team games coming up. We had a bit of a, you could say, poor result against Finland last month. I know that we feel disappointed by that, but we have the opportunity to put that right in the next window. We definitely want to qualify for the Euros again. We don’t want it to be a one-off and a different expectation on the group. I think that’s what is expected of Scotland now. The men qualified already and that brought back a lot of emotions. It’s something that just makes you really proud to be Scottish. So that’s another huge goal for the year.

Stopped me if you’ve heard this one before, but UConn is once again poised to win multiple national championships. It may not start this next year — the landscape is far too precarious for any confident predictions — but championships are coming.

The squad is young and new, with just four returning players and no seniors. Evina Westbrook, who sat out last year after transferring from Tennessee, will lead six freshmen seeing the court for the first time.

The last time UConn had as many first-year players on its roster was 1988, when it won its first (of 18) Big East titles. This year will mark the return of UConn to the conference it made famous and is ready to dominate once again.

Then, as now, the young players are a source of optimism. Still, UConn will need its older players to step up. Juniors Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa will anchor any success UConn finds.

“We have been taking up that leadership role,” Williams said. “It’s a lot more responsibility, it’s been different. The younger players have a willingness to learn, and are competitive. They’ve made it easier for us.”

Williams is one of four top-ranked high school recruits to have signed with UConn in the past five classes. The others are Paige Bueckers, who is widely expected to have a standout freshman season, and Azzi Fudd, who will join UConn next year.

“There is a direct correlation between if you sign those guys, at Connecticut anyway, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to be an amazing team for a couple of years,” Auriemma said. “Yes, that is a great possibility. Our track record proves that.”

Before last season was cut short, UConn was a lock to enter the tournament as a No. 1 seed. Since then, Megan Walker left early for the WNBA and Crystal Dangerfield graduated before going on to win WNBA Rookie of the Year with the Minnesota Lynx. Seniors Molly Bent, Evelyn Adebayo, Kyla Irwin and Batouly Camara also graduated.

Along with Bueckers, the freshman class also features guard Autumn Chassion, forward Aaliyah Edwards, guard Nika Muhl, forward Mir McLean and forward Piath Gabriel. This group is widely expected to put the Huskies over the edge. Already, Geno Auriemma has been impressed with Edwards, the second highest rated player in the class, and Muhl, whose experience is bolstered by time in the Adriatic League in Croatia, where she led the league with 6.2 assists per game in 2019.

”There are times that Aaliyah and Nika look like they’ve been playing college basketball for awhile. They fit right in,” Auriemma said. ”They slide right in. So Paige, Nika, and Aaliyah mix really well with our returning players. Mir, once in a while, Piath less, Autumn less. But everyone has gotten better.”

Aaliyah Edwards plays a physical game and has been likened to Napheesa Collier by Christyn Williams. Piath Gabriel, at 6-foot-5 freshman, was not a top-end prospect, but UConn’s coaches clearly saw something. And Mir McLean is athletic and versatile, but will probably be a spark off of the bench this season.

The notoriously difficult coach has a team voted the 3rd-best in the preseason. Williams will still be running the show after posting 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in her sophomore season, but should have more to offer if given the opportunity. The next of the four returners is Nelson-Ododa, a 6-foot-5 center who played a lot of minutes last season, even if they were not always the most predictive. Still, she was able to record 100 blocks last year, the eight-most in school history.

Aubrey Griffin had 5.4 rebounds per game but struggled with consistency. Anna Makurat will be tasked with spacing the floor as a catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter, where she averaged 7.9 points and 3.3 assists per game last year.

Then there is Westbrook, who also has some stroke from distance — she shot 38% from deep in the 2018-19 season. Still, she is recovering from knee surgery and has never played for UConn, so expectations for the redshirt junior should be kept in flux.

Of course, the team’s ceiling may depend on Bueckers. She was tabbed as the preseason Big East Freshman of the Year, but as she will be the first to say, it’s far too early to celebrate.

“I haven’t even done anything yet, I haven’t even stepped foot on a college court,” Bueckers said. “I have a lot to prove. I have a lot to work on.”

The good news is, she has some time—but not as much as you’d think.

While the 2020-2021 season may be a bit too hectic for even the sport’s most talented freshman to conquer, starting next year, with Azzi Fudd joining a more experienced Huskies squad, the expectation will be championships, plural.

That’s welcome news for Husky fans. For everyone else, well, we can try to enjoy at least this season.

Nora Dunnan is a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Five Iron Golf, an indoor golf facility headquartered in New York City that’s on a mission to grow the game and make a previously inaccessible sport available for all. In a handful of years, Five Iron has grown to three locations in NYC and expanded to cities including Baltimore, Chicago, and Philadelphia, with spaces opening in Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C. Dunnan sat down with JWS to talk about Five Iron’s efforts to open up the game and life as a female entrepreneur shaking things up in a male-dominated terrain.  

What is Five Iron Golf? 

Five Iron is an indoor golf center started in Manhattan in 2017. We have golf simulators that you can come in and practice on so you can get better at golf, improve your game, learn the game. It could be a group of friends coming in to hang out and play socially. We have golf pros who give lessons, we do leagues, we do events both corporate and private, we do kids programming and then we have a full bar, a full menu so you can eat and drink and play golf all at the same time.

We pride ourselves on being very different from standard golf. If you come inside you’ll notice right away we do not look like a country club. We have a very urban feel, a modern feel, we have neon graffiti murals on the wall. Our staff is wearing t-shirts and we try to be a really welcoming and inclusive place. We know golf can be an intimidating sport and we don’t think Five Iron is an intimidating place at all. So if you’re a brand new golfer or an experienced golfer, you know everybody can come into Five Iron and get something out of it.

So how did this all start? Where did the idea come from? How did you get involved?

So there are four of us who co-founded it back in 2017. We opened in 2017, but we started working on it in 2015. Jared, our CEO, used to take golf lessons from Mike who is one of our other founders at another small indoor place in Manhattan, and the two of them always talked about how if they built a bigger place that was open and had event space and games like pool and ping-pong and TVs and music, good food and drinks that a lot of people would show up. After just talking about it for a while, and really wanting to turn it into a reality, they brought me on board.

I knew Jared previously, not from work, just personally, and they brought me on board to sort of figure out if it would be possible and to do some research. After a couple of years of seeing over 70 pieces of real estate in Manhattan, we landed on our Flatiron location and the rest is history.

So Five Iron starts, you’re breaking into this brand new industry, you’re doing a project you couldn’t have imagined beforehand. What kind of challenges did you face as an entrepreneur and especially as a young woman starting a business in a male dominated sport?

There were a lot of logistical challenges to opening a business that no one really prepares you for. So things like codes and building inspections and getting different licenses. That was definitely something that was new for all of us, it’s almost like you don’t know what you don’t know. Obviously we learned and we figured it out, but there were definitely some scary moments along the way where we kind of wondered ‘what did we get ourselves into.’

In terms of being a female in the golf world, it’s been interesting. Honestly, a lot of times in the very beginning, people didn’t necessarily realize what role I played at the company and sometimes we’d be out and about and they’d always want to talk to the men. I know this has happened to a couple of women who have worked there. They just kind of assume that the men are in charge or that the women don’t know as much about golf.

It’s definitely a male dominated sport and I don’t think people always assumed when they met me that I was one of the co-founders. But at the end of the day, once I get into a conversation with people, they realize I know what I’m talking about.

Have you come into any challenges with people in the space, competitors who are trying to do something similar, but are a bit more traditional and maybe thinking ‘who are these new kids on the block?’

Yea there is some competition out there that wants to stay exclusive. You have to be a member, there’s an initiation fee, and we just don’t want that. We actually got advice from somebody who ran a private indoor facility in the city within the first week we opened saying we were doing it wrong because golf is not for everybody, golf is only for people who can afford it. To which we said no, we want to make it affordable and open to everybody. And that is a big part of how our mission has prevailed.

That’s not to say that those places won’t succeed, but we strongly believe that it can be for everybody based on the clientele that we have. We still have people who come in who belong to some of the most private clubs in the country, but they love coming into Five Iron because it just has a great atmosphere with great service. We’ve proven that golf does not have to be a members only sport.

That leads me to my next question, one of the mottos of Five Iron is ‘grow the game,’ what does that mean to you, to grow the game?

To us, what’s really important is getting more people exposed to Five Iron and to golf. Like I said, golf can be intimidating and golf can be a sport where people think that if they didn’t grow up belonging to a country club or something like that, they can’t play. So one of our big initiatives is to prove them wrong by showing how much fun they can have at Five Iron.

One group that for sure is underserved is women, and we’ve done a lot to get more women in. We do ladies clinics, we have partnerships with a variety of women’s golf groups, we’ll run special deals to get more women in the space and it’s worked. We co-hosted a clinic up in Chicago with Fore the Ladies and there were over 100 women there.

Golf is a sport that I think women would love to pick up, especially if they’re in a relationship with a golfer. It can be really fun to learn and play with your partner rather than have it be an activity they disappear to go play for a whole day. Instead, make it a family activity. It can be a lot of fun playing with your entire family.

We’d love to get more kids into Five Iron, we’d love to get underserved communities into Five Iron, and that’s something we actually have a dedicated employee for. One of her main focuses is the ‘grow the game’ mission and she’s working hard to find different non-profits, schools, and other organizations who are interested in using our resources to learn and enjoy golf.

I know you have been an athlete your entire life, but didn’t pick up golf until your early 20s. Do you have any advice for girls who are interested in golf and looking to break in, but might have no idea where to start?

It’s a great question because I think for a lot of women, if they’re not really close with someone in their life who plays golf, it can be hard. Like for me, my husband taught me how to play, told me where to get my first set of clubs, helped me buy my first set of clubs, gave me his old driver. You know, without that, I would have been totally lost.

But there are so many options out there that I did not know about. So for one, there are groups like Fore the Ladies and Grueter Golf. What they’re both doing is getting women into golf — some who play and some who don’t — and showing that it’s totally fine to not know what you’re doing. They host some of their clinics at Five Iron and our instructors go over everything —  basics like, here are the different clubs, here’s how you hold them, here’s what you wear to go play golf.

By finding resources out there like Fore the Ladies and Grueter Golf, you not only provide yourself with an opportunity to ask for help or get research, but you put yourself in a community with other women who are looking to do the same. You have friends who are learning the game and friends who are buying their first sets of clubs and being a part of a community makes it a lot more fun to get into a new sport.

What does the future look like for Five Iron?

We’re excited to be in new cities and we hope one day down the road there’ll be a Five Iron in every major city and smaller cities and maybe some suburban towns, too.

I think the more and more people get access to the game, whether it’s to come in and really improve or just do something fun rather than sitting at home, the better. We hope that we can keep growing and bringing the Five Iron experience to more and more communities.

Michelle Wie West knew at a very young age that she was going to be a professional athlete. It was never a question of whether she would go pro, it was only a matter of finding the right sport.

In a recent conversation with Kelley O’Hara on the Just Women’s Sports podcast, Wie West laughs when recalling her early process of elimination. She quickly crossed off soccer, basketball, and gymnastics. She loved hitting in tennis but didn’t have the foot speed. She loved batting in baseball but couldn’t catch. Golf ended up a perfect fit, a sport where she could doggedly pursue excellence in what she loved most in all the sports she tried: connecting stick to ball as powerfully and precisely as possible.

Many saw young Michelle Wie as a child prodigy whose parents pushed her into the sporting limelight as early and often as possible, but in reality Wie West has always been an independent thinker. Her own internal barometer of happiness has been her guiding force throughout her career, leaving her largely unfazed by critics and naysayers.

One source of her early confidence was just her sheer physical presence. At age 10 she was 5’7”, 165 lbs. and could hit the ball 275 yards.

“I was an absolute unit,” she laughingly tells O’Hara. “I loved being outside. I was a total tomboy.”

She had no qualms about being the only girl on the basketball court or the only girl on her youth baseball team, even making the all-star team in the latter. By 14 years of age, her unprecedented trajectory in golf was already well underway. She had won enough youth and adult amateur events, and was enough of a media draw, for Sony to offer her a sponsor’s invite to their 2004 PGA tournament in Hawaii.

Wie West tells O’Hara the decision to accept the invite was easy: “My mindset was ok, I played on the boys’ team in baseball. I made the all-star team. All my friends are boys. I was like a super tomboy. So I didn’t feel like that was a really bizarre thing to do.”

In that first PGA event at 14 years old, she missed the cut by one stroke, beating 47 adult men, including seven major winners. She went on to accept several PGA sponsor invites throughout her career, undeterred by critics who wrote them off as undeserved publicity stunts.

Wie West’s entire path to becoming a pro golfer was unconventional. The typical route is to play on your high school team and in junior golf events and then get recruited to a college team and transition to pro tour events. For a youngster with Wie West’s skills, a full college scholarship was all but guaranteed.

But Wie West always made up her own mind about what was best for her, and she decided she could turn pro without sacrificing her educational goals. She was regularly placing high enough to qualify for prize money, but as an amateur she wasn’t allowed to accept the rewards. That didn’t make sense to her, so she decided she would do both: become a professional golfer and still go to her dream school, Stanford University.

“I knew I wanted to go to Stanford. That was not something I was going to give up,” she tells O’Hara, at the time thinking, “I can turn pro and I have good enough grades and maybe a cool enough story that I can get into Stanford.”

So, as a sweet sixteenth birthday gift to herself, she signed contracts with Nike and Sony and officially turned pro. Two years later she was admitted to Stanford University. While many speculated that attending such a rigorous academic school would negatively impact her golf career, Wie West wasn’t concerned.

“I thought that even if it took me away from golf a little bit, it was worth it,” she tells O’Hara. Looking back, she still believes going to Stanford was one of the smartest decisions she’s ever made.

Wie West’s confidence to do things her own way has also been evident on the putting green. After a mid-career slump dropped her to 119th on the LPGA tour in putting average, she came up with a very unconventional new technique. The idea first came to her when she was paired with a much shorter player who was nailing all her putts.

“I’m using my Stanford brain here and I think the scientific reason why she is putting better than me is because her eyes are closer to the golf ball,” she recalls thinking to O’Hara, “If I get closer to the ball… I will start putting better.”

In order to accomplish this, the 6-foot-tall Wie West began leaning over almost 90 degrees in a new, aptly named “tabletop” putting stance.

She even laughed along with those commenting on the peculiar image of her tall frame bent at such an awkward angle. Scientific validity aside, the change was successful for Wie West.

“From that moment on I started feeling really comfortable and that was something that I was searching for,” she explains to O’Hara. She went on to win two LPGA events the following year, including her first Major win at the 2014 U.S. Open.

For someone who was in the national (and international) spotlight at such a young age, the fact that she’s never been all that influenced by public perception is rare and impressive. In making big decisions, Wie West has always maximized for personal happiness by confidently trusting an inner voice that has guided her on a path that’s uniquely her own.

Listen to Michelle Wie West’s full conversation with Kelley O’Hara on the Just Women’s Sports podcast here.