Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day, dedicated to acknowledging and championing the accomplishments of women in sports. It is also a reminder that the fight for equality in athletics is far from over.

Flo Hyman understood that fight intimately. The Olympic volleyball player was a leading advocate for Title IX, and National Girls and Women in Sports Day was created in her honor.

Great progress has been made in the world of sport since Hyman’s work and the passing of Title IX, but there’s still much to be done. Today, only two in five girls participate in sports, deterred by reasons like cost, access to facilities, safety and more. It’s an equity issue our friends at Under Armour are placing front-and-center this year with a commitment to breaking down barriers that keep millions of youth from playing. “Everyone deserves the right to experience the power of sport,” says CEO, Patrik Frisk.

Today, we’re joining Under Armour to celebrate four incredible female athletes whose early involvement in sports launched their successful careers and who continue to inspire us every day.

Kelley O’Hara

The two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medal winner is one of the most influential players in American soccer. O’Hara also hosts the Just Women’s Sports podcast. Now a star defender for the reigning NWSL champion Washington Spirit, O’Hara played forward all her life before switching to left back during the 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament.

O’Hara rose up the ranks as a soccer player in Fayette County, Ga., where she played four years of varsity at Starr’s Mill High School and led the team to a 5A state title as a senior in 2006 with 20 goals and 16 assists. The standout season earned her Gatorade Georgia State Player of the Year honors and a leading role at Stanford as a freshman. In 2009, she won the Hermann Trophy, given annually to the nation’s best player.

Jordan Thompson

The 6-foot-4 Thompson was a key cog on the United States’ 2020 Tokyo Olympics team, scoring 34 points to help eliminate defending champion China in pool play. Despite losing Thompson to injury, the U.S. went on to win its first-ever gold medal.

Thompson starred at Edina High School (Minn.), playing four years of varsity and leading the team in blocks and kills as a senior. She earned her first college scholarship after just two years of club volleyball, and at Cincinnati, where she helped run an athlete bible study in her spare time, she was a three-time unanimous American Athletic Conference player of the year.

Odicci Alexander

The reigning Softball America Pitcher of the Year recently wrapped up one of the most decorated college careers of all time. As James Madison’s starting pitcher for four seasons, Alexander led the Dukes to their first-ever College World Series in 2021. Alexander went 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 64 2/3 innings as James Madison became the first unranked team to advance to the semifinals.

Alexander was raised by her grandparents in Boydton, Va., and taught herself how to pitch by spray-painting targets on her grandparents’ water well. She flew under the radar at small-town Park View High School, and was discovered by a James Madison coach who was in the area to scout the opposing team’s pitcher.

Alexander now pitches for the USSSA Pride after playing in Athletes Unlimited’s second softball season last year.

Kaila Charles

One of the WNBA’s top rising prospects, Charles was selected No. 23 overall by the Connecticut Sun in the 2020 draft. Charles helped Maryland win the Big Ten Tournament her freshman and senior seasons and averaged 13.8 points per game over her career, tied for 12th in program history.

Charles starred for three years at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Greenbelt, Md.) before transferring to nearby Riverdale Baptist School, where she led the team to the national championship game and earned McDonald’s All-American honors. Charles is of Trinidadian and Antiguan heritage, as represented on her custom Under Armour sneakers.

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.

Former Stanford leading-scorer Kiki Iriafen is set to join star rising sophomore JuJu Watkins at USC next year, reported ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Saturday. 

The 6-foot-3 forward is coming off a breakout season with the Cardinal, where the then-junior led Stanford to the Sweet 16 with an average of 19.4 points, 11 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. Walking away with the Pac-12’s Most Improved Player award and a spot on the All-Pac-12 team, Iriafen entered the portal at the close of last season and was subsequently ranked second on ESPN’s 2024-2025 transfer ranking list.

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At USC, Iriafen will play out her senior year alongside the Women's Basketball Coaches Association’s 2024 National Freshman of the Year JuJu Watkins, forming what could be an explosive partnership for the Trojans as they look to build momentum going into next season. The Southern California side advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1994 this year, ultimately falling to UConn in a heated 80-73 battle.

Iriafen wasn’t the only one making choices this past week. LSU guard Hailey Van Lith officially announced her own transfer to TCU on Friday, while Princeton standout Kaitlyn Chen committed to UConn for her final year of college eligibility. Other big names still weighing their options are Oregon State's Talia Von Oelhoffen and Raegan Beers, as well as UNC's Deja Kelly.

With conference realignment on the horizon and team fit a contending factor, the NCAA women's basketball transfer portal has been busier than ever. And while transfers can bolster many types of college programs, this particular offseason has seen talent-rich programs growing even richer.

Legendary WNBA superstar Candace Parker announced her retirement from professional basketball on Sunday, effective immediately.

"I promised I'd never cheat the game & that I'd leave it in a better place than I came into it," she wrote in an Instagram post. "The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it's time. My HEART & body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it."

The Las Vegas Aces forward was in the midst of rehabbing a right ankle injury and a left foot fracture after missing part of the 2023 season.

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One of women's basketball's most prominent trailblazers, Parker popularized the play of a "big guard." A back-to-back NCAA National Championship winner with Tennessee, she was drafted No. 1 overall by the Los Angeles Sparks in 2008. She was named both WNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year in her debut season with the league. 

Parker exits the pros a three-time WNBA champion, a two-time league MVP, seven-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and two-time NCAA champion, in addition to many more individual accolades. Throughout her 16-year career, she averaged 16 points, 8.5 rebounds, and four assists per game. She remains the only player in WNBA history to earn three WNBA titles with three different teams: LA in 2016, Chicago in 2021, and Las Vegas in 2023. 

In her announcement, the 38-year-old implied the physical toll of league play was a driving factor in her ultimate decision to walk away from the game, despite recently signing a one-year deal with Las Vegas.

"This offseason hasn’t been fun on a foot that isn’t cooperating," she wrote. "It’s no fun playing in pain (10 surgeries in my career) it’s no fun knowing what you could do, if only…it’s no fun hearing 'she isn’t the same' when I know why, it’s no fun accepting the fact you need surgery AGAIN.

"I’m grateful that for 16 years I PLAYED A GAME for a living & DESPITE all the injuries, I hooped," she continued. "I’m grateful for family, friends, teammates, coaches, doctors, trainers & fans who made this journey so special."

Fans weren’t the only ones shocked by Parker’s surprise retirement. In a reaction captured on video, Liberty forward Breanna Stewart responded to the news with a jaw-dropped, eyebrow-raised "What? Wow." 

Yet while the Naperville, Illinois native’s time on the court might be over, Parker says she isn't leaving the world of basketball anytime soon.

"This is the beginning," she wrote. "I’m attacking business, private equity, ownership (I will own both a NBA & WNBA team), broadcasting, production, boardrooms, beach volleyball, dominoes (sorry babe it’s going to get more real) with the same intensity & focus I did basketball."