Sofia Jakobsson has had a busy summer.

Twelve days after completing an Olympic silver-medal run with the Swedish national team, Jakobsson finds herself thousands of miles from Tokyo. She’s in Louisville preparing for The Women’s Cup, her first competition with new club team FC Bayern Munich.

“During the Olympics, it felt like I would go back to Madrid, but I actually knew I would come here,” Jakobsson told Just Women’s Sports on Tuesday. The Swedish striker signed with Bayern Munich in July after two years with Real Madrid.

Welcome to the FC Bayern family, @JakobssonSofia! 🔴⚪

The Sweden international joins @FCBfrauen from Real Madrid. ✍️#MiaSanFamily

— 🇺🇸 FC Bayern US 🇨🇦 (@FCBayernUS) July 2, 2021

Jakobsson says it took her until “some days after” a whirlwind Olympics to remember she’d be playing with a new club team.

The star forward helped lead Sweden to the gold-medal match in Tokyo, trouncing the United States 3-0 on the way to the podium. The Swedes’ bid for gold was ultimately halted by Canada, who beat Sweden on penalty kicks in the Olympic final.

“It’s obviously still a little bit disappointing,” said Jakobsson, adding that she felt Sweden was “the better team.”

“It still stings a little bit, like a lost gold medal and not a silver medal won, but I hope in the future that it will feel great and I can be proud of the great tournament we did together.”

With the Games now behind her, the 31-year-old is ready to turn her focus to the club season, which begins later this month.

“I know the German league is really tough and every game will be super tough,” she said, adding that she expects the Frauen-Bundesliga will be more competitive than the Spanish league. “Trainings will be more intense and I will keep up my level and even progress even more.”

Before Jakobsson can settle into the German league and in with Bayern, she and the squad will first compete in the inaugural Women’s Cup, a Louisville-hosted tournament that includes two European teams (FC Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain) and two NWSL teams (Racing Louisville and the Chicago Red Stars).

Bayern Munich comes to Louisville after a successful 2020-21 season in which they made a run in the Champions League before falling to Chelsea in a hard-fought semifinal. PSG comes to The Women’s Cup after squashing Lyon’s 14-year reign atop France’s Division 1 Féminine, winning the 2021 title for the first time in club history.

Racing Louisville and the Red Stars, meanwhile, have had impressive seasons in the NWSL. The hosts have posted an impressive four wins and three draws in their debut season in the league. International talents like Ebony Salmon and Nadia Nadim have energized the upstart team. And Chicago, after a mid-season three-game winning streak, sits fifth in the NWSL standings, with a playoff spot well within reach.

Even in its first year, Jakobsson, 31, says there are already “big eyes on the tournament.”

“I think really this can help women’s soccer to grow and the teams to get more followers from U.S. and vice versa,” she said.

Bayern’s Women’s Cup matchup against PSG is a game Jakobsson thinks could preview a potential Champions League collision.

“It will be a really exciting game I hopefully play, or even to be on the sidelines to see both teams compete,” she said.

The European teams will meet Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, streaming on Paramount+, while the NWSL teams will follow at 7:30 p.m. ET.

No. 3 South Carolina basketball suffered a blow this week, as top transfer Ta'Niya Latson exited the Gamecocks' 96-55 win over Providence with a lower leg injury on Sunday.

"She's smiling," South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said of Latson immediately following the game, offering an optimistic injury update. "She got treatment all through the second half."

The star senior guard, who turned 22 years old last Friday, joined South Carolina after leading Division I in scoring with Florida State last season.

This year, Latson's 16.9 points per game trails only sophomore forward Joyce Edwards's 21.4-point average on the Gamecocks' scoresheet.

While the full extent to Latson's injury and her potential time off the court is still unknown, any absence exacerbates the team's injury woes, as South Carolina lost standout forward Chloe Kitts to a season-ending injury before the 2025/26 campaign tipped off — with the Gamecocks battling additional availability limits throughout their roster all month.

That said, with the recent returns of forward Madina Okot and guard Agot Makeer from concussion protocol, the Gamecock bench is significantly less sparse, with both returnees impacting Sunday's South Carolina victory with a double-double.

Even more, Staley's squad will see additional roster relief when 18-year-old French center Alicia Tournebize joins the team midseason.

How to watch South Carolina basketball this week

The No. 3 Gamecocks will open the new year by tipping off their SEC slate on Thursday, when South Carolina hosts unranked Alabama at 2 PM ET.

The clash with the Crimson Tide will air live on SEC+.

The world's tennis stars are preparing to open 2026 play in Australia this weekend, with top WTA and ATP leaders on Team USA gearing up to defend their United Cup title starting this Friday.

The two-time champion US enters as the No. 1 seed in the fourth edition of the hard-court tournament, bolstered by the return of world No. 3 Coco Gauff to lead Team USA's six-player United Cup contingent.

With each tournament bout consisting of one WTA singles match, one ATP singles clash, and one mixed-doubles competition, Gauff notably claimed a straight-sets victory over Polish phenom No. 2 Iga Świątek to secure the 2025 title for the US.

"I'm super excited," the 21-year-old star said prior to this year's United Cup. "I had such a good time in my first year playing with the team, and I'm looking forward to going back."

With the 2026 Australian Open beginning in less than two weeks, the United Cup pits 18 national teams against each other as players from both the women's and men's tours tune up for next year's Slams.

Fellow WTA Top-10 stars Świątek and Italy's No. 8 Jasmine Paolini will join Gauff on the 2026 United Cup court, while fan favorite No. 16 Naomi Osaka will feature for tournament debutant Japan.

Also battling for national pride will be two winners of last season's WTA awards, with 2025 Newcomer of the Year No. 18 Vicky Mboko joining Team Canada and 2025 Comeback Player of the Year No. 11 Belinda Bencic competing for Switzerland.

How to watch the 2026 United Cup

The 2026 United Cup runs January 2nd through 11th, with live coverage airing on the Tennis Channel.

The No. 3 Minnesota Frost are looking to skate up the PWHL table, as the reigning back-to-back champs hope to make up ground before the third-year league breaks for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Eight games into the 2025/26 season, the Boston Fleet top the PWHL standings with 19 points, trailed by the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres with 14, while the No. 4 Montréal Victoire sit one point behind the Frost with 11.

"Our league is good. Every game is going to be close," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said last week. "It's just about getting better and keep accumulating points."

With the league's original six teams largely off to a hot start, there's only a few weeks left before players hang up their PWHL jerseys for February's Winter Games.

Teams outside the current playoff chase are also making a statement, as New York Sirens forward Casey O'Brien scored her first pro goals to power the sixth-place squad past the No. 5 Seattle Torrent 4-3 on Sunday — becoming the first rookie to record a hat trick in PWHL history in the process.

"We've been putting in a lot of work in practice and video, focusing on the little things," O'Brien said postgame. "Tonight felt like the payoff."

How to watch this week's PWHL action

The puck drops on the final 2025 PWHL matches on Tuesday, when the No. 3 Minnesota Frost visit the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres at 7 PM ET, airing live on Prime.

Closing out the year on Wednesday, the No. 6 New York Sirens will host the No. 7 Vancouver Goldeneyes at 1 PM ET, with live coverage airing on MSG Network.

San Diego made roster waves this week, as the 2022 NWSL expansion team announced on Monday that founding goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan is leaving the franchise in a mutual contract termination.

Sheridan joined the Wave ahead of the club's inaugural year, making 87 appearances over four seasons while registering nine shutouts in the team's 2023 Shield-winning campaign.

"Kailen has been an integral part of this Club since day one," Wave sporting director Camille Ashton said in a Monday statement. "We thank her for the contributions to this Club and this city and wish her the best in the next chapter of her career."

While San Diego hunts for a new starting keeper, they pointed to the future by also announcing the signing of Florida State defender Mimi Van Zanten on Monday.

Van Zanten is fresh off her second NCAA championship in three seasons, building youth experience with the USWNT before joining the Jamaica senior women's national team.

"Her championship experience and ability to contribute on both sides of the ball make her a strong addition to the Wave," Ashton remarked about the 20-year-old.

Ultimately, while San Diego has long had an aggressive transfer market approach, the move away from their 2023 Shield-winning core raises questions about the future of the Wave roster.