Lucy Davis is a show jumping competitor who, as part of the US Show Jumping Team, took home silver at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Below, she spoke with Just Women’s Sports about the dedication required to compete at the highest level and how she overcame her own post-Olympics burnout.

I know this is a dumb question, but how do you get a rookie horse to jump over its first obstacle? And what does training look like from there?

You just kind of point and shoot. I mean, they’re natural. They’re literally bred to be jumpers like thoroughbreds are bred for speed and lightness. Jumpers are also bred for lightness, but more so in terms of agility. And then each breed has their sort of build, and they start jumping when they’re four or five and then you just continue to refine all of the technical aspects. As a rider, your goal is to be able to go forwards, backwards, left and right, in an instant. So you just have to keep refining what we call a horse’s rideability. Each jump on a course is set in a specific way, so your ability to adjust and to communicate with the horse is paramount. And that comes over years of working with them.

What, in your mind, separates the elite riders from the merely good? Is it preparation, relationship with the horse, ability to adapt?

I think all of the above. What’s beautiful about our sport, and what may be puzzling to outside audiences, is that you have a pretty diverse set of top riders. It’s men and women. At the Olympics, I was the only person on the podium in their twenties. The majority were in their thirties and forties, and some in their fifties. So there’s no kind of body type or age or anything that determines your prime. It’s definitely about experience and the bond between specific horses. And I think what separates the really good riders from the kind of Olympic riders is the mental aspect. You basically have two minutes where you can’t make a mistake. You make a mistake, you have a rail, you’re done, you’re out. But even then, you have to keep fighting to not have more rails because every one counts. But that ability to hyper-focus needs to be refined over time. Some people have more of a natural feel with the horses, and if those people work hard and also have the mental game, they are usually elite.

When did you realize that horses were going to be a big part of your life? 

Before I could walk. My mom would take me to the barn and put me on a horse, and I guess when she would try to make me leave the barn, I would start screaming. So I was definitely a crazy little pony girl from the beginning. It’s all I wanted to do. I tried to convince her to do homeschool and just grind, but thankfully she didn’t let me do that.

What do you think has specifically allowed you to be so successful at such a young age? 

I think I grew up a little bit differently than a lot of young riders, at least in the US. Being in California, we have our own sort of rogue circuit. And I was always a tenacious child competitor. My mom used to have this thing that she made up called the sportsmanship award, and if at the end of the weekend, I was a good sport, she would get me like a pair of cool socks or something else that was pretty random and insignificant. But it was enough where I was like, Oh, I want those socks. I have to be nice even if I don’t win. But I was definitely pretty competitive. And then, I had a series of “right place at the right time” moments, where I got to work with one of the best trainers in the world, Markus Beerbaum. Starting at age 17, I had a wonderful mentorship there. And I got lucky with Barron [Davis’ horse at the 2016 Olympics], who basically took me from being competitive with good horses to having a horse that could actually do the things that I dreamed of doing. That kind of kicked everything into gear for me.

The stars definitely have to align, but there’s a certain point where it’s like everybody has goals. And everybody has setbacks on the way to those goals. I think I just tried to keep a really open mind about those setbacks and get creative about them and use them not as setbacks but as different avenues to get to where I wanted. A lot of people get really hung up on the pressure, but I’m kind of good at hermitting and closing that off. There was a lot of sweat and blood and tears behind the scenes, but that’s another one of those things where every athlete has to make sacrifices. I commuted weekly from Stanford to compete. In the summer, I was living in the middle of nowhere, Germany, biking to the barn in the rain every day. All those moments compiled into something.

What surprised you the most about your experience in Rio?

Um, how many people came to equestrian? [Laughs.] It was awesome, because we’re obviously not as mainstream as other sports, but actually within Brazil, there’s a huge part of Brazilian culture, and particularly within the military, that’s into equestrian. The facility itself was out on the edge of a military base in Rio, so we had all of these families and people that have grown up riding or have done it through military training come out. The crowds were awesome. But so was the whole experience. I always tell people that, I feel like anything you dream about or talk about for four years, once it happens is always kind of a letdown. And this was the only time in my life when the experience totally lived up to and surpassed expectations. There was definitely some fear beforehand that that wouldn’t be the case. Because I’ve been obsessed with going to the Olympics since I was six years old. So there was some panic, like, what if it’s not cool? But there’s this energy everywhere that comes from having so many athletes be in the same boat. There’s a camaraderie, and everybody is so in the zone. It’s inspiring.

You’ve talked elsewhere about experiencing burnout after the games. What was that like? 

Yeah, I had a full on crisis. Like I said, the Olympics had been my dream since I was six years old. They were always my goal. Everything I did was somehow dictated by that. Every morning before class I went to the barn to ride. Every morning I was in Germany I biked to the barn in the rain, even though I could get a ride, because I told myself if I take any shortcuts, I’m not going to get to where I need to go. There were so many small things like that where you beat yourself up. And you never think about what happens after you reach your goal. After the Olympics, I took a month off to celebrate, and then I went straight back to work. I was in Holland. It was November and starting to get cold. I was living in another small town with no family or friends outside of the people I rode with. And it was kind of, well, okay, I reached my goal. So what am I working towards now?

I’m a very goal oriented person, and at that time I just didn’t have a direction. It was the first time I had thoughts about other things I could be doing with my life, especially seeing what other friends were doing after school. And then all my stuff got stolen, which led to everything just hitting all at once. I had a full blown kind of meltdown, which led me to come back to the States. It was a very dark sort of year, honestly, but ultimately, it was one of those things where I thought good, I had that meltdown, I got over it. And as I started competing again I realized that I still had the motivation to ride. I realized that I actually love doing what I’m doing and I desperately want to go to Tokyo. I want to keep building the Pony App and continue to design my life around horses because at the end of the day I can’t give that up. And now we’re here.

Do you think those were realizations you could have come to without the meltdown, or was that a prerequisite for some of these larger insights? 

Oh no, that was definitely a prerequisite. I mean… we don’t have a season. Equestrian is all year round. It’s every weekend in non-coronavirus times. You’re kind of constantly hustling to build new mounts to get to their peak, and then you’re bringing up the other ones. You’re building a kind of portfolio, basically, and it’s sort of nonstop, and you’re traveling around, until one day you wake up and you’ve been, you know, running the rat race.

I think that pause allowed me to appreciate why I got into it in the first place, and why I was going to continue to do it for the time being. It let me focus on, okay, maybe other than Tokyo, I don’t have my next big, life’s-mission goal. But that’s okay. When I was in college, I was so hyper-focused and goal driven, and just kind of irrationally obsessed with making the Olympics. They were like the rings in the Lord of the Rings. They had this power over me where everything I did was focused on that goal. Now there’s this sort of mourning and admiring of my past self, as well as just accepting that I have different and other priorities. I still want some of the same things, like to go to the Olympics, but I know I can go about it differently and not let it consume me.

What does a typical day of training look like now and how will that change as we approach the 2021 Olympics?

Now I ride about five horses a day, right in the morning. And then usually in the afternoon or evening I do some kind of supplement training. Biking, running, various exercises that are riding related. Leading up to the Olympics, it’ll be a lot more preparation for competitions and trials, which involves a lot more jumping and our version of scrimmaging, where you’re doing practice rounds to simulate competition.

Do you think, generally speaking, athletes experience less doubt regarding their life trajectory or that they’re simply better trained to persevere through doubt? 

I’d like to think the latter. What’s nice about this sort of training program, the competition schedule and the goal setting is that you impose a structure on your life that just permeates into other areas, so that when things go wrong, you have a structure and an idea of where you want to go. It’s a lot easier to deal with those setbacks as exciting challenges, rather than thinking like, Oh my God, this is a sign, or some kind of horrible diversion.

At this point in your career, how do you measure improvement? 

Mmm, that’s a hard one. I think with horses we’re lucky because each new horse brings sort of a new adventure and a new challenge. So if I’m working with a younger horse and introducing them into the top level, and they go and have a clear round and I place sixth, I’ll be ecstatic. Whereas if I did the same competition with Barron, that result would be a letdown. I think setting horse-specific tasks allows you to be happy with small wins, because the number of clear rounds, and the number of wins for even the number one rider in the world, is much lower than the number of times you hit a rail or don’t win. So if you’re just focused on winning all the time, you’re really setting yourself up for unhappiness.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.