For Ajee’ Wilson, the past year during the pandemic was somewhat of a blessing. The American record-holder in the 800 meter used the time away from competition to rest, reset and refocus on the mission, four years after a disappointing finish at the Rio Olympics.

Wilson’s preparation paid off at the United States Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore., where temperatures reached 108 degrees and events were delayed as a result. The 27-year-old fought through the heat to place third in the 800-meter final with a time of 1:58.39, just behind Athing Mu and Raevyn Rogers.

The finish qualified Wilson for her second Olympic Games. In Tokyo, she’ll be part of an American group looking to win its first gold medal in the event since 1968 and first medal of any kind since 1988.

“It was a super intense weekend, that being our third race of the series, having the delay with the heat,” Wilson said. “But coming out of that final, I was super relieved. I was excited and happy that I was able to round off an amazing team that we’ll be sending to Tokyo.”

Wilson spoke with Just Women’s Sports about what she’s learned since Rio, the biggest sacrifices she has to make for the Olympics and what she’s most looking forward to in Tokyo.

Had you ever run in heat that intense? How challenging was that?

I didn’t actually get that much time out there in the heat. Probably the hottest I’ve ever run in was 107 a few years before at the U.S. Championships in Sacramento. But right before we started warming up (at the trials), one of the heptathletes passed out, so they had to make the decision that they felt like was going to protect and be safest for most of the athletes.

I’m sure your preparation, recovery and training come into play in a situation like that. Which tactics and supplements have you found to be helpful through your partnership with Thorne?

I use their iron, their basic, two-a-day nutrient, their D3 and, recently since the partnership, their amino complex, which is a recovery drink. The first three that I take are pretty much just to meet deficiencies that I know that I have through routine bloodwork. But the big picture and the big goal is just better health — that’s their campaign. Whether it’s for an elite athlete or the everyday person, avid health lover, their products and their mission are geared towards just being healthier people.

Did you have to make any training accommodations over the past year because of the pandemic?

Yeah, so from March until June last year, we pretty much shut down as a team. So during that time phase, I was just on my own, mainly doing long runs, a workout every now and again. But because the season was pretty much canceled and the games were canceled, we backed off training a little bit, just to not beat yourself up if you don’t have to be ready that soon. And so coming into this season, in the fall, it was about gearing up again and getting back into the swing of preparing for a competitive schedule.

Did that break from your usual training regimen change your perspective of the sport in any way?

It did. I think the one thing I immediately realized was I reconnected with how much I love what I do and how much I love some of the smaller aspects of training and racing that I took a little bit for granted. Things as simple as seeing other friends that I’ve grown to know over the years at competitions, training with my teammates and being competitive are things that I feel like I was able to tap back into and appreciate more during that time.

This will be your second Olympics. Is there anything you took away from Rio that you will apply this time around in Tokyo?

From my specific experience in Rio, and not doing as well as I wanted that whole season, it was coming back home and saying, I need to see what’s going on. I’m not feeling how I should. That was the start of focusing on my health and on the deficiencies that I’m now addressing with Thorne products. It started from the Games, realizing like, hey, I need to take a step back and make sure that my body’s prepared to do what I’m asking it to do.

What changed about your training from before Rio to before Tokyo?

The simplest difference is that stuff that I wasn’t able to do then, I’m able to do now. I think over the years, my workload has gotten higher, and the more trained you get, the better you are at doing what you’re doing. So our workouts are a lot more intense. I have a routine lifting program now. We sprinkled things in here and there before Rio, but I feel like we’ve become more deliberate about that in the year since.

What do you find are the biggest sacrifices you have to make in preparation for an event like the Olympics?

I feel like I always go back and forth with that word because I think since I’ve been doing it for so long, how I live is just what it is. I have my habits, I have my routine. So things that I may have looked at as sacrifices when I first started fresh out of high school, now I don’t view them the same way and I appreciate them for being necessary to be successful. I would say, once upon a time, limiting my social butterfly experiences was something that was difficult to navigate at first. But I think as I’ve gotten older, knowing how to manage my time and having family and friends that are super supportive have made that feel like less of a sacrifice and more as something that I’ve adapted to.

Do you have any pre-race rituals?

As I’m getting ready to go to the track to race, I have “I Was Here” by Beyoncé on repeat. That’s my go-to song. I don’t listen to music when I train or warm up, so that’s the last soundbite that I get before I go. And then usually before warming up for my race, I’ll take a quick power nap, get up and start my warm-up.

Between now and leaving for Tokyo, what will you be doing?

I’ll just be home training. I train out of Philadelphia. I may be racing sometime in between, like in mid-July, but that’s still up in the air. So I’ll just be at home putting in work and preparing as best as I can to get ready to go to Tokyo.

What are you most looking forward to about the Olympics?

I’m really looking forward to just being at the start line of the first round, just taking in the magnitude of the moment. I’m not really sure how everything’s going to play out organization-wise in the village and with the travel and the games. So that’s been what my heart’s been set on, just that moment and having that opportunity.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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."

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"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.