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Five breakout athletes to watch at the Tokyo Olympics

(Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Caroline Marks – Surfing

For this 19-year-old, Florida-born surfer, the Tokyo Olympics have arrived at the zenith of her ascent up the ranks of the pro surfing world. Growing up with four brothers and a sister, Caroline had plenty of built-in competition and self-proclaimed critics to push her on the waves at the beach across from her family home. At age ten, the then-barrel racing horse lover decided surfing was her biggest passion and told her dad she wanted to start competing. Three years (and a west coast relocation) later, Marks became the youngest surfer to ever qualify for a World Surf League Championship Tour event. 

In 2018, during her first full season on tour, she earned Rookie of the Year and an impressive seventh place overall finish in the championship. And in 2019, in only her second year on tour, not only did she qualify to represent Team USA for the Olympics, but she finished the season in an astounding second place overall, just behind fellow USA surfer and four-time World Champion Carissa Moore. The goofy-footed Marks, now touted as the future of women’s surfing, will have the opportunity to capitalize on that heavy hype when the global spotlight shines on surfing for the first time this summer.

Sha’Carri Richardson – Track and Field, 100m

Sha’Carri Richardson is all the content the running world needs and more. Not only has she exploded onto the scene as the newest hope of ending the USA’s gold medal drought in the 100M, but she has a boldness in her presence both on and off the track that can draw in casual fans by the truck load. And much of her story has yet to be told. She has shared publicly that her mom left when she was very young and that she later attempted suicide as a teen, but the details of her troubled upbringing in Dallas, Texas are largely untold. What is well-documented is her jaw-dropping speed on the track. 

After winning several age-group state titles in school, Richardson broke onto the national scene when she took first place in the 100M at the 2016 AAU Junior Olympics. The following year, she was a member of the gold medal winning 4x100M team at the Pan American U20 Championships. But the most notable day of her career came at the end of her freshman year at LSU during the NCAA National Championships. In the 100M final Richardson ran a 10.75, setting a new U-20 world record with the fastest NCAA time in the event in 30 years. Less than an hour later, she set another U-20 world record in the 200M, sending her name on a trending spree and catching the deserving attention of pro sponsors. Four days later, she declared for the professional circuit and left her college career behind. With a solid but shortened first pro season in 2019 and a non-existent 2020 season, everyone is anxious to see how Richardson compares to the world’s best. Having already clocked a mind blowing 10.72 in the 100M this spring and winning the 100m race at the Olympic trials, Richardson’s career is primed to explode at the Tokyo Olympics.

Regan Smith – Swimming (100M Backstroke, 200M Fly)

When the first day of 2020 arrived, Regan Smith was a senior in high school who woke up with Tokyo very much on her mind. In a sport like swimming, where the Olympics happen to fall in your development and timeline is monumental. And for Smith, it was looking pretty perfect. In 2019, at just 17 years of age, she set new world records in both the 100M and 200M backstroke, with the latter still standing today. 

Luckily for Smith, an extra year of training seems to have paid off. While she fell just short of qualifying in the 200M backstroke, she managed to make the Olympics team for both the 100M and the 200M butterfly, her third strongest event.

“I think I was a lot more in my head about it last year, whereas this year we’ve all had plenty of time to get a grip on things mentally,” Smith told NBC Sports in early 2021. “Instead of being worried about how quickly they’re coming up, I’m really just trying to be excited and be like it’s finally go-time and treat it like that instead of treating it like it’s some big scary thing, because it’s not. It should be exciting.” 

The excitement in Tokyo might be even bigger due to the postponement, as the young Aussie swimmer Kaylee McKeown recently notched a 100M backstroke time just .06 seconds shy of Smith’s record. If all goes to plan in Tokyo, these two could give the fans some thrilling finishes come July.

Katie Lou Samuelson – 3×3 Basketball

The post-pandemic world is looking bright for Katie Lou Samuelson. Back in February, the third year WNBA player was traded from the Dallas Wings to the Seattle Storm in exchange for the first overall draft pick of 2021. The news of the trade furrowed many brows, as Samuelson’s first two seasons in the league have been largely underwhelming. She spent her rookie season with the Chicago Sky before being traded to Dallas for 2020, and was averaging just 3.7 points per game prior to her trade.

The long-range sharp-shooter from UCONN may have had difficulty finding her footing at the pro level. But things seemed to shift while playing overseas in Spain with Perfumerias Avenida. Playing alongside her older sister Karlie for the first time since high school, Samuelson averaged 15.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and was named to the All-EuroLeague team. 

As she explained last month to the Connecticut Post, “I was really given a lot of freedom on my overseas team to develop back into where I feel comfortable, strong, confident in myself and my game. I think that really was the main difference for me, just seeing myself having success.” 

That confidence carried over into Samuelson’s efforts with Team USA’s 3×3 squad. Alongside Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray and Kelsey Plum, Samuelson helped the team qualify for the inaugural Olympics tournament in Tokyo. All four players were subsequently named to the Olympics squad. After struggling to make her name in the WNBA, Samuelson (who’s still just 24 years old) could be hitting her stride at just the right time.

Hannah Roberts – BMX Freestyle

Another sport making its Olympic debut this summer is BMX Freestyle. While other forms of women’s cycling have been part of the games for decades, this skate park style, course-based sport is catching fire among young women across the US. The woman leading that charge at the moment is 19-year-old Michigan native Hannah Roberts. 

Following in the footsteps of an older cousin who rode in the upper ranks on the men’s side, Roberts took up the sport at nine and at seventeen became the first-ever BMX Freestyle World Champion in 2017. After a third-place finish to the season in 2018, Roberts reclaimed the top pedestal again in 2019 and was the first American to qualify for Tokyo in the event. The year-long postponement definitely had its challenges.

“Being already qualified was a blessing and a curse,” she told Fox Sports, “I started putting more pressure on myself because I felt like I had something to prove since my spot was already solidified and we had to wait another year, which kind of put me in a weird position where riding wasn’t as fun … because I was weighing myself down with all the pressure.” 

To offset the performance pressure, Roberts shifted her focus to her personal life and mental health. She got engaged, married, and purchased a new home with her wife. For someone not yet twenty, she’s making big moves and is approaching the upcoming competition with a healthy combination of excitement and humility. 

“I’m just excited to see what everybody else is doing, and I know there are a few riders I’m riding with that are just going to go and kill it. They are going to definitely hold their own, and I have to go hold my own.”

USWNT Vet Carli Lloyd Announces Pregnancy After ‘Rollercoaster’ IVF Journey

retired soccer player carli lloyd
Lloyd will welcome her first child with husband Brian Hollins this October. (Dennis Schneidler/USA TODAY Sports)

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

Project ACL addresses injury epidemic in women’s football

arsenal's laura wienroither being helped off the field after tearing her acl
Arsenal's Laura Wienroither tore her ACL during a Champions League semifinal in May 2023. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

USC enters superteam era with transfer portal gains 

Oregon State transfer and USC recruit Talia von Oelhoffen at 2024 NCAA women's tournament
Oregon State transfer Talia von Oelhoffen adds fuel to USC's 2025 NCAA title dreams. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

U.S., Mexico drop bid to host 2027 Women’s World Cup 

uswnt fans cheer at 2023 fifa women's world cup in australia
USWNT fans will have to settle for cheering on their home team from abroad in 2027. (Brad Smith/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.

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