On Tuesday evening, at a Men in Blazers event in New York City, the axis of the NWSL world shifted slightly, forever changed. In announcing the first-ever free-agency signing in the league’s history, U.S. women’s national team defender Kelley O’Hara trailed off, saying “NWSL free agency opened today and…,” before donning a NJ/NY Gotham FC sweatshirt and as a special graphic appeared behind her.

O’Hara didn’t need to say much because the intent was clear: With her destiny in her own hands, she made a splash, signing a multi-year contract with the New Jersey club. In Gotham, she finds both an eager and a familiar partner — she spent some of the prime years of her career on Sky Blue FC’s backline, before moving on to the Utah Royals in 2018.

The rebranded Gotham FC club that O’Hara returns to couldn’t look more different than the Sky Blue team she left, but they similarly need to take steps toward being competitive. In 2021, despite losing head coach Freya Coombe to Angel City FC mid-season, Gotham made the playoffs for the first time since 2013. After a quarterfinal loss, Carli Lloyd retired, and the club made a number of moves last offseason to try to capitalize on the early signs of progress.

WELL FREE AGENCY JUST OPENED pic.twitter.com/6h50gdnzy8

— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) November 16, 2022

The 2022 season, however, didn’t go as planned. Despite picking up Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger, and retaining key parts of a dynamic frontline that features Ifeoma Onumonu and Margaret Purce, Gotham fell to the bottom of the NWSL standings. The club parted ways with head coach Scott Parkinson halfway through the season as the team sputtered to last place with a 4-17-1 record. They finished the season with a minus-30 goal differential, scoring only 16 goals while conceding 46. After Harris’ season ended early due to an injury, the goalkeeper announced her retirement at the USWNT Players’ Ball on Monday.

O’Hara can help solve some of Gotham’s issues right away. She’s a proven winner at both the club and international level, and she brings a level of intensity that NWSL teams rely on to grind out results. She also played some of the best soccer of her club career with the Washington Spirit in 2021, capped by scoring the game-winning goal in that year’s NWSL Championship. If Gotham is looking for a little grit and determination, and a lot of experience, O’Hara is the perfect free-agent signing.

The 34-year-old will also bring stability to the right-back position after 2021 Defender of the Year Caprice Dydasco was traded to the Houston Dash in August. O’Hara adds competition for 20-year-old Brazilian Bruninha, who also plays right back and was brought in as one of Gotham’s players of the future.

Within all of this lies Gotham’s great contradiction: The club’s results indicate a need to rebuild, and yet O’Hara’s signing, among others, suggest they’re a team in win-now mode. In constructing the roster they currently have, Gotham let go of young talent like Brianna Pinto (North Carolina Courage) and Evelyne Viens (Sweden). The club also had the opportunity to give minutes to rookie goalkeeper Hensley Hancuff in the wake of Harris’ injury but chose to play veteran Michelle Betos long after the playoffs fell out of reach.

And while on paper it seems like Gotham’s defense needs to be the main focus of free agency, the ebbs and flow of games in 2022 put the backline under undue amounts of pressure that resulted in goals conceded. The club chose not to retain midfielders Jennifer Cudjoe and Domi Richardson and is still negotiating with McCall Zerboni, after the midfield struggled immensely last season to control matches.

O’Hara’s resurgence in 2021 coincided with excellent seasons from Sam Staab and Emily Sonnett in the Spirit’s central defense. Gotham’s center-back pairing, meanwhile, remains unsettled, with Estelle Johnson’s return to the club up in the air. Allie Long should help shore up the defensive midfield in her return to the team alongside Victoria Pickett, whom Gotham acquired in a trade with the Kansas City Current in exchange for a hefty package (a 2023 first-round draft pick and $200,000 in allocation money). Those changes could have a positive effect on the attack, which spent too many games in 2022 on an island, without the ability to influence games.

Gotham has the No. 1 pick in the 2023 College Draft and new head coach Juan Carlos Amorós signed to a three-year contract. They have developed a recognizable brand that fans and players are drawn to, with the hope that the team will eventually find its identity on the pitch.

What happens in 2023 is too much to place on any one player, even Kelley O’Hara. But the fact that when presented with the most agency she’s ever had in her career, the World Cup and NWSL champion chose Gotham FC as home speaks volumes about her belief in the club’s future.

Notes on the Washington Spirit

• Mark Krikorian’s early tenure as general manager has the makings of a huge project, shaped in his own vision. He ousted Kris Ward (with player support), brought in assistants who worked with him at Florida State and let one of the team’s leaders walk in free agency. Now, he’s on the hunt for a new head coach.
• Even in the afterglow of their championship win, the Spirit looked like a group in need of a reset during a challenging 2022 season. Fans’ faith in ownership will continue to be tested, as what was hailed as a potential dynasty appears to be moving in another direction.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

Zimbabwean swimming legend Kirsty Coventry made history on Thursday, when she became both the first woman and first African ever elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

At 41-years-old, Coventry will also be the youngest president in the organization's 131-year history and the 10th individual to ever hold the office.

"As an nine-year-old girl, I never thought I would be standing up here one day getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours," the five-time Olympian said in her remarks.

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An extensive Olympic resume, in and out of the pool

The Auburn University grad and seven-time Olympic medal-winner — including back-to-back golds in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games — retired from competition after the 2016 Rio Olympics.

At that time, Coventry was already three years into her IOC membership, after initially joining as part of the governing body's Athletes' Commission. She joined the Executive Committee in 2023.

"I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you have taken," Coventry said to her fellow members in her acceptance speech. "Now we have got some work together."

That work that awaits Coventry in her eight-year mandate will include navigating the 2028 LA Games and selecting a host for the 2036 Summer Games.

Her first Olympic Games at the helm, however, will be the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, giving her less than a year to prepare before the Opening Ceremony kicks off.

Coventry to continue IOC efforts to promote gender equity

Coventry will have a few months to adjust before assuming her new office on June 23rd, when she will succeed her mentor, 71-year-old Thomas Bach.

Bach will have served the IOC's maximum 12-year tenure in the role when he steps down, having led the governing body to stage the first-ever Olympic Games with equal numbers of women and men competing — a mark captured at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

With gender equity as a driving force in his leadership, Bach also increased the number women serving as both IOC members and in the organization's leadership roles, with women comprising seven of the body's 15-person executive board.

Coventry is one of those seven women, and Bach specifically hand-picked her as his successor.

The legacy she inherits isn't lost on Coventry, both in the efforts of Bach and in the women who paved the way — perhaps none more directly than IOC member Anita DeFrantz, a 1976 Olympic bronze medal-winning rower for Team USA and the only other woman to ever run for IOC president.

Recognizing the election's historic significance, 72-year-old DeFrantz overcame significant health issues to travel to Greece in order to vote for Coventry — with her ballot securing the exact number of votes Coventry needed to win.

"I was really proud that I could make her proud," an emotional Coventry said.

The NCAA is leveling the playing field, with Women’s March Madness teams in line to receive their first-ever prize payouts based on tournament performance — a mechanism the men’s tournament has enjoyed since 1991.

Sparked by 2021's landmark NCAA gender equity review, the NCAA will distribute a total of approximately $15 million to individual conferences based on how many games their teams play, with each March Madness performance "unit" worth about $113,000.

This year's inaugural $15 million purse represents 26% of the competition's $65 million media rights valuation — putting it proportionally on par with the percentage allocated to the men's fund.

That overall prize pool will jump to $20 million in 2026 and $25 million in 2027, before switching to a successive 2.9% increase per year.

"We are all playing in the same March Madness," said UNC Greensboro head coach Trina Patterson, whose No. 16-seed Spartans will face No. 1-seed USC in the first round on Saturday. "The treatment for the men and women should be equal. We get a unit!"

March Madness teams get additional NCAA tournament perks

While the performance payouts are new this year, women's March Madness teams also receive perks like charter flights throughout the tournament, which can make all the difference for smaller programs eyeing an upset.

"Everyone is so excited about the experience. Going from the bus directly to the plane, everyone was so happy," March Madness debutante William & Mary head coach Erin Dickerson Davis told ESPN ahead of her No. 16-seed team’s First Four victory on Thursday.

Columbia junior Perri Page, whose No. 11-seed Lions defeated Washington in their own First Four matchup on Thursday, echoed Davis' sentiment, saying, "It was cool going to the charter, and we've been taking it all in."

"We've been enjoying the whole season," the forward added, noting "It's great we can make money for the school now."

"It should have always been that way. Women's basketball has been fighting for equality for a very long time," said Davis. "I've been in this business for many, many years. I played college basketball. It's a long time coming."

"You got to start somewhere, and I think we've been so far behind," added Columbia head coach Megan Griffith.

"This is more like the whipped cream. I think the cherry on top is going to keep coming — but it's really good so far."

Less than two months before the season tips off on May 16th, the WNBA dropped its full 2025 national broadcast slate on Thursday, rewarding last year’s most in-demand teams with a significant uptick in screen time.

Fueled by the fan fervor around 2024 Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever will see a league-record 41 of their 44 regular-season games aired nationally this season.

That tally includes all five Fever matchups against regional rival Chicago, after the pair's June 23rd game averaged 2.3 million viewers — becoming the most-watched game of the 2024 regular season.

Just behind Indiana in earning significant national broadcast coverage are two-time WNBA champs Las Vegas, who will see 33 of their games aired across the country. As for the reigning champions New York Liberty, they trail the Aces by just one game, with 32 of their 2025 season games garnering national attention.

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Record WNBA ratings spur big broadcast moves

Thanks to 2024’s monster ratings, big-name networks are increasingly recognizing the WNBA as a profitable summer product, with broadcasters expanding their coverage as the league prepares for its 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights contract to kick in next year.

With the 2025 WNBA season expanding from 40 to 44 games per team, ION is leading all broadcasters with 50 regular-season games, with ABC/ESPN, CBS Sports, NBA TV, and Amazon Prime all taking a piece of the pro women's basketball league's pie.

Broadcasters are also moving games off of their sports-specific networks and onto flagship cable channels, with a record 13 matchups — a full half of Disney Networks' 26 regular-season games — set to air on ABC, including the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game.

The league will also see its first-ever regular-season games earn primetime broadcast TV slots, with CBS Sports elevating two of its 20 games — the June 7th and August 9th battles between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever — to its flagship network, CBS.

As the WNBA shoots for an even more impactful 2025 season, broadcasters are helping to boost the charge, offering increased access to the league’s brightest stars and biggest games.

The NCAA tournament tips off in earnest with the bracket's 64-team first round on Friday, as eager March Madness fans look beyond the chalk to eye the competition's underdogs after a rollercoaster 2024/25 basketball season.

Early upsets aren’t exactly the norm in the women’s tournament. Only one lower seed won their first-round matchup in 2024, and no team below a No. 3 seed has ever gone the distance, but in a season of increased parity, a few lower-rated squads are rounding into underdog form.

Breaking down potential March Madness bracket-busters

For potential March Madness upset instigators, late-season momentum late season momentum is the name of the game — a dangerous factor in any single-elimination tournament.

Even without superstar grad Caitlin Clark, No. 6-seed Iowa capped their regular season on a high before narrowly losing to No. 4-seed Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament's quarterfinals. Should they advance past No. 11-seed Murray State in their first-round Saturday matchup, the Hawkeyes are poised to give No. 3-seed Oklahoma a run for their money in the second round on Monday.

Entering as a No. 10-seed, Ivy League tournament champs Harvard will have their hands full against No. 7-seed Michigan State on Saturday, but Crimson senior Harmoni Turner and her season-average 22.5 points per game could tilt the scales in Harvard's favor.

After edging out first-round opponent No. 11-seed Iowa State, No. 6-seed Michigan is playing like an upset contender. Now a potential second-round matchup against No. 3-seed Notre Dame — fresh off a recent losing skid — awaits the young squad. 

With the brackets locked and the teams loaded, the prospects of twists and turns make the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament especially exciting — even if this year’s frontrunners appear destined for Tampa.

How to watch Women's March Madness games this weekend

The Big Dance officially begins at 11:30 AM ET on Friday, when No. 11 Iowa State tips off against No. 6 Michigan on ESPN2.

Saturday's slate will complete the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's first round, with No. 6 Iowa beginning their Madness run against No. 11 Murray State at 12 PM ET on ESPN.

No. 10 Harvard will start dancing a few hours later, with the Crimson facing No. 7 Michigan State at 4:30 PM ET on ESPNews.

All games in the 2025 March Madness tournament will have live coverage across ESPN networks.