Kristie Mewis has recently enjoyed a career renaissance, winning the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup and earning a spot on the United States Women’s National Team 2020 Olympic roster. The 30-year-old’s journey to the top of her game hasn’t been a straight path, however, as she has weathered injury, trades, and positional changes en route to her much-celebrated comeback.

Here’s everything you need to know about the USWNT midfielder.

Early Success in Massachusetts

Born in 1991 in Massachusetts, Mewis grew up in Hanson, a town outside of Boston, with younger sister turned-eventual-teammate Sam Mewis. Mewis’ talent was apparent from a young age, as she made a name for herself at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, shattering records and winning nearly every award available to a high school athlete.

It didn’t take long for Mewis to make history alongside sister Sam, becoming the first siblings to play on a U.S. World Cup team together when they took the pitch at the New Zealand Women’s U-17 World Cup. The Mewis sisters continued the magic, playing together again in the U-20 World Cup in Germany.

Staying close to home, Mewis attended Boston College after graduating high school, starting her collegiate career in 2009. The midfielder showed her versatility early, filling in on defense when needed while notching five goals and six assists in her rookie year. Continuing to shine in Boston, Mewis’s apex came in her senior year when she finished the season with 16 goals and 12 assists, earning a spot as a Herman Trophy Semifinalist.

NWSL debut and early USWNT career

Mewis was selected third overall in the 2013 NWSL Draft, the league’s first college draft, by FC Kansas City. In her debut season, the club finished second in the standings but was bounced from the playoffs by Portland in the semifinals.

In the same year as her NWSL debut, Mewis received her first senior national team call-up, earning her inaugural cap with the USWNT in February 2013 against Scotland. A few months later, in June of 2013, Mewis notched her first goal with the team, scoring in front of a hometown crowd against South Korea.

After receiving a series of caps with the USWNT, the Massachusetts-native fell out of the national team conversation in 2014 during the Jill Ellis era.

Mewis’ carer in the NWSL also took a turn after she was traded from Kansas City to the Boston Breakers in 2014. During her stint with the club, Mewis signed a three-month loan with Iga FC Kunoichi, a team in Japan’s Nadeshiko League, and then a one-year FC Bayern Munich in 2015.

After her two-year campaign in Boston, Mewis was traded to the Washington Spirit in exchange for Megan Oyster. During her 2017 season with the Spirit, Mewis appeared in 14 games, scoring two goals and one assist. That same year, Mewis was sent to Chicago, scoring a goal in the only game she played for the club.

Once a top NWSL draft pick, Mewis had strung together a series of consistent seasons despite moving around the league, but was perhaps falling short of the wunderkind expectations heaped onto her early in her career.

Houston Dash and ACL injury

Mewis’s career once again zagged when Chicago traded her to the Houston Dash midway through the 2017 season. Despite the midseason switch, the midfielder began to find her footing with the club, excelling with the Dash into the 2018 season. Things took a twist, however, when Mewis tore her ACL during the team’s May 2018 match against the Washington Spirit. Up until that point, Mewis had started in 11 games on the season, scoring two goals for Houston. The injury sidelined her for the remainder of the year, leaving Mewis in a precarious position.

With the benefit of hindsight, Mewis now credits her ACL tear with turning around her career. She told Jeff Kassouf on a 2020 episode of  The Equalizer’s Kickin’ Back podcast that her injury helped her find herself and reassess her career.

“I was just kind of sick of just being mediocre,” said Mewis. “I felt like I had so much more to give, but for some reason I couldn’t get in the mental and physical space to get there, and I was just like, what am I doing?”

In her return to the Dash in 2019, Mewis stepped up her game, starting in 20 matches, scoring four goals, and notching an assist in an impressive comeback season. Her compelling NWSL performance also earned Mewis her first USWNT call-up since 2013, with new coach Vlatko Andonovski inviting her to a December identification camp.

Challenge Cup and USWNT return

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the NWSL to improvise, putting on the inaugural Challenge Cup in 2020 in lieu of a regular season, allowing teams to compete in a bubble-style tournament in Utah. The Houston Dash, led by Mewis, made a surprising run to capture the Challenge Cup title, the club’s first trophy. Starting in seven matches, recording a goal and an assist, Mewis played a critical role in the team’s victory, earning herself a now-infamous Budweiser-aided celebration after the tournament.

Her dominance in the Challenge Cup also earned Mewis a call up to a full senior USWNT camp in the fall of 2020, ahead of the team’s friendly against the Netherlands. On that trip, Mewis recorded her first national team cap in six years, entering the team’s match against the Dutch in the second half. Her re-emergence into the USWNT fold would’ve been sweet enough, but Mewis wrote her name in the history books, scoring in the 70^th minute, 2,722 days since her last goal with the team.

It was the longest any player had ever gone in between goals for the USWNT.

Welcome back! Kristie Mewis scores in her first game with @USWNT in 6 years 😱 pic.twitter.com/axtVgrV0Yc

— espnW (@espnW) November 27, 2020

The 30-year-old’s triumph marked a full-circle moment for Mewis, who had committed herself to get back on the pitch with the U.S. following her ACL injury.

“I just was so motivated and so determined, and I knew that I just had to get back on the national team because that was obviously my ultimate goal,” Mewis told her sister Sam and teammate Lynn Williams on the Snacks podcast.

Mewis’ success with the USWNT continued through 2021, as she clinched a spot on Andonovski’s Tokyo Olympic roster alongside sister Sam Mewis.

What Comes Next

Mewis, left unprotected in the 2022 NWSL Expansion Draft by Houston, was selected by the San Diego Wave before being traded to Gotham FC. The star midfielder will join a stacked NJ/NY roster, including MVP nominee Margaret Purce and Defender of the Year Caprice Dydasco. With the 2023 World Cup cycle on the horizon, Mewis will also look to make a case for her place in a competitive USWNT midfield pool.

U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will play their last home game on July 16th in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Send-Off Match against Costa Rica will take place at Washington, DC’s Audi Field — home to both the Washington Spirit and DC United — at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16th. The friendly rounds out a four-game Olympic run-up campaign under incoming head coach Emma Hayes’ side, with the last two set to feature the finalized 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team roster.

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Hayes will appear on the USWNT sideline for the first time this June, helming the team as they embark on a two-game series against Korea Republic hosted by Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on June 1st followed by Allianz Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 4th. 

The team is then scheduled to meet a talented Mexico squad on July 13th at Gotham FC’s Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the Olympic-bound lineup will attempt to rewrite February’s shocking 2-0 loss to El Tri Femenil in the group stages of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup. And while clear roster favorites have emerged from both of this year’s Gold Cup and SheBelives Cup rosters, a spate of recent and recurring injuries means making it to the Olympics is still largely anyone’s game.

Broadcast and streaming channels for the USWNT's final July 16th friendly at Audi Field include TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

The USA Basketball Women's National Team is still considering Caitlin Clark for a spot on the Paris Olympics squad, says selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti. 

On Monday, Rizzotti told the AP that the committee will be evaluating the college phenom’s Olympic prospects by keeping a close eye on her first few weeks of WNBA play with Indiana.

The move is somewhat unconventional. While Clark was invited to participate in the 14-player national team training camp held earlier this month — the last camp before Team USA’s roster drops — she was unable to attend due to it coinciding with Iowa’s trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

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Judging by the immense talent spread throughout the league in what might be their most hyped season to date, competition for a piece of the Olympic pie could be fiercer than ever before.

"You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it's for now or the future," said Rizzotti. "We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It's got to be a combination of an entire body of work. It's still not going to be fair to some people."

Of course, Clark isn’t the first rookie the committee has made exceptions for. Coming off an exceptional college season that saw her averaging 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game for UConn, Breanna Stewart was tapped to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil less than two weeks after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm. Eight years prior, fellow No. 1 pick Candace Parker punched her ticket to the 2008 Games in Beijing just two weeks after making her first appearance for the L.A. Sparks.

In the lead-up to Paris’ Opening Ceremony on July 26th, USA Basketball Women’s National Team is scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games. They'll first go up against the WNBA's finest at the July 20th WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix before facing Germany in London on July 23rd.

While an official roster announcement date hasn’t yet been issued, players won’t find out if they’ve made this year’s Olympic cut until at least June 1st.

For the first time in history, three different WNBA teams have completely sold out of season ticket plans well before the league's May 14th kick-off.

Call it the Caitlin Clark effect, attribute it to this year’s tenacious rookie class, or look to the skyrocketing visibility of veteran players across the board. But no matter the cause, facts are facts: Tickets to the 2024 WNBA season are selling like never before. 

On Monday, the Dallas Wings became the third team to sell out of season ticket memberships in the league’s 27-year history. The announcement from Arlington came shortly after the Atlanta Dream issued their own season ticket sell-out statement, also on Monday, and almost seven weeks after the back-to-back WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces made headlines by becoming the first-ever WNBA team to sell out their season ticket allotment.   

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According to the Wings, season ticket memberships will fill nearly 40% of the 6,251 seats inside their home arena, College Park Center. The club also said that their overall ticket revenue has ballooned to the tune of 220% this year, spanning not just season tickets but also a 1,200% increase in single ticket sales. There’s currently a waitlist to become a Dallas season ticket holder, a status that comes with extra incentives like playoff presale access and discounts on additional single-game tickets. 

In Atlanta, season tickets aren't the only thing flying off the shelves. The Dream also announced that they broke their own record for single-game ticket sales during a recent limited presale campaign. Sunday was reportedly their most lucrative day, with five different games totally selling out Gateway Center Arena. Individual tickets for all upcoming matchups will hit the market this Thursday at 8 a.m., while a waitlist for season ticket memberships will open up next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

"Excitement around women's sports, particularly basketball, is at an all-time high and nowhere is that felt more than here in Atlanta," Dream president and COO Morgan Shaw Parker said in the team’s statement. "We’ve continued a record-setting growth trajectory over the past three years under new ownership — both on and off the court — and 2024 is shaping up to be our best season yet."

As of Tuesday, season ticket sales revenue for Caitlin Clark’s hotly anticipated Indiana Fever debut haven’t yet been announced by the club. But if these numbers are any indication — not to mention the explosive demand for Fever away games felt by teams around the country — it won’t be long before we see some scale-tipping figures coming out of Indianapolis.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

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The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.