If the Challenge Cup was any indication, the 2021 NWSL season will be one to watch. As celebrity investment continues pouring into the league and superstar players fight for Olympic-inclusion, fireworks are expected from start to finish. In advance of this weekend’s kick off, here are four of the biggest stories we’ll have an eye on this year.

Olympic Roster Battle

USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski has said on numerous occasions that he will be using NWSL games to evaluate players for the Olympic roster, imbuing the upcoming season with heightened significance.

League games will be crucial for players who currently sit on the bubble of the UWSNT roster. Kristie Mewis recently made a case for her place on the Olympic squad with a memorable Challenge Cup outing. Mal Pugh and Sophia Smith have put on impressive performances for their respective clubs as well. Will a Challenge Cup final appearance put Midge Purce in contention for a slot on the 18-player roster? Expect Olympic talk to dominate the first half of the 2021 season.

A Bud gal through and through 😉@KristieMewie is your @budweiserusa Player of the Week! pic.twitter.com/BgBBWMSxls

— Houston Dash (@HoustonDash) April 29, 2021

Are the Thorns too big to fail?

The Portland Thorns are overflowing with talent. The team’s back line is anchored by USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn and Thorn’s veteran Meghan Klingenberg. Opponents have the likes of Lindsay Horan and Crystal Dunn to contend with in the midfield. Then up top, Canadian legend Christine Sinclair is joined by 20-year-old phenom Sophia Smith. Not to mention Adrianna Franch, who towers in goal.

With the whole field stacked, it’s no wonder the Thorns steamrolled their way to the Challenge Cup final, banking three wins in a row and a draw in their final group stage match, before winning the championship in PKs against Gotham. The hurdle Portland now faces is building up enough momentum before the squad loses key players to the Olympics this summer.

Simone Charley to Christine Sinclair: You love to see it.#CC21 | #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/ck5XhfPRgY

— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) May 3, 2021

Summer Absences

There will be no break in the 2021 NWSL season for the Tokyo Olympics. The games are set to span from July 23-Aug. 8, meaning Olympic-bound players will miss a substantial chunk of NWSL games. Teams will have to contend without players like Marta, Crystal Dunn, Christine Sinclair and Julie Ertz. The Olympic gap will impact clubs across the league, but could prove especially painful for squads like the Portland Thorns and Orlando Pride, who have a large number of national team players.

Can a new group of international players revitalize OL Reign?

In early April, it was officially announced that French international goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi and German international midfielder Dzsenifer Marozsán were heading to the NWSL. The Olympic Lyonnais players are set to join OL Reign in June, on loan until the end of the year. It’s been speculated that French forward Eugénie Le Sommer will be joining her Lyon teammates in Tacoma this summer as well.

The move is a byproduct of Lyon’s OL group acquiring Reign FC back in 2020. The wave of international talent will be joining the likes of Tziarra King, who put on a dazzling performance for the Reign in the Challenge Cup. Will the injection of experienced international players be enough to push OL Reign atop the standings after a handful of middling years?

IT’S HAPPENING! @OLfeminin legends, Sara Bouhaddi and Dzsenifer Marozsan have signed with OL Reign on loan for the 2021 season.

Read more: https://t.co/gjRlubgfmB pic.twitter.com/pgl8m3Eg4d

— OL Reign (@OLReign) April 19, 2021

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

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.   

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by espnW (@espnw)

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by LPGA Tour (@lpga_tour)

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.