U.S. women’s national team forward Sophia Smith is laying down the path to the prime of her career, and the road just happens to be golden.
The 24-year-old recently won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, just one summer removed from her first-ever major tournament with the senior national team — a Round of 16 exit in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Like the USWNT program, Smith is utilizing past disappointments as building blocks toward progress. With first-year head coach Emma Hayes, a shiny gold medal, the new chapter of the USWNT’s story features Smith as one of its main protagonists.
Basking in Olympic glory
“I just, I feel really content. I feel like it’s hit me, and I’ve soaked it all in, and I’ve rested, and now I’m in a place where I feel really proud of myself,” Smith told CBS Sports.
“I feel really proud of our team. I think to have the turnaround that we did within a year from the World Cup, it speaks a lot about our character as players, our character as athletes, the staff that we have that came in and just kind of helped turn things around for us. And it’s a really good and refreshing feeling. I’m happy with life outside of soccer. I just feel like I’m in a really good place, and I’m just trying to take it one day at a time and enjoy it all and not take it for granted, and at the same time, look forward to what’s to come.”
Once considered a top prospect among the ever-talented youth stockpile, Smith is no longer part of the “next generation” equation, a player who will someday take their place among the senior national team elite. She is beyond all that now and is firmly part of the team’s present-day plans. Whether it is for club or country, her role is similar, a focal goal-scoring threat with an elevated profile on each team she represents.
Back to work in the NWSL with Portland
For the moment, it’s valuing the Olympic glory and then back to work with the Portland Thorns — who are navigating some troubled waters down the stretch of the season. They’re currently clinging to sixth place, on a four-game losing streak, with just a two-point gap separating them from the eighth-place playoff line. For the face of a franchise, there’s some pressure as always, but Smith manages the highs and lows through a positive lens.
“It is challenging coming back [from the Olympics] to finish another half of the NWSL season, because it’s a long season. The Olympics is exhausting and draining, physically, mentally, emotionally, all of those things. So it’s challenging but I think the coolest part about our sport is there’s always something to look forward to.
“There’s always a new trophy to chase, a new goal that you want to achieve and accomplish. So it’s hard, but it’s worth it, and it’s rewarding. And I am very excited to be back with my Portland team, and hopefully, finish the season in a good place and compete for the playoffs, compete for a championship. But just kind of trying to take it a day at a time, and just enjoy where I’m at,” she said.
Smith returned to the league as an Olympic champion, a crucial component of the USWNT attack eventually self-dubbed “Triple Espresso,” a nickname earned during the tournament as she, alongside Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson, dazzled international audiences with their lethal attack. The trio produced 10 of the teams 12 goals during their gold medal run, and their connection led to the masses searching for a suitable nickname.
Where “Triple Espresso” nickname came from
However, Smith reveals that the process leading up to the coffee moniker was only slightly organic. It was brought to their attention through family members and prematch media rounds when they were asked about it. She explained that the squad was off social media during the tournament and only heard some nicknames before Rodman’s sister passed the espresso suggestion along and it resonated with both Rodman and Smith.
“I don’t know if she heard it somewhere or if she came up with it, we have to figure that out, but Trin said it to me, and I was like, ‘wait, I kind of like that.’ And she’s like, ‘I know me too.’ It just felt fitting for us. I feel like we’re all a lot of energy. We’re all feisty on the field, but we can be, sweet. It’s a little bit of everything, and also it’s fitting that we all love coffee and drink like, four coffees a day, especially in camp. I don’t know, it just felt right for us. I don’t know if Mal was on board to begin with, but she has no choice now, because it’s what it is, but I feel like it’s just fitting in and just kind of describes us really well,” she explained.
To decompress post-Olympics, Smith said she disconnected and “basically fall off the face of the earth.” She deleted social media, let people in her circle know she’d be unavailable, and had no media availability. She ultimately reconnected with loved ones and headed to Arizona to be with her fiance, NFL wide receiver Michael Wilson, and relied on family.
“I’m a family girl, like being with the people in my circle is so important to me, and it’s how I feel most relaxed and supported and calm. So it was important to get back with my family and just kind of detach from everything that was happening,” she said.
The physical toll of the pace of Paris games
The rapid pace of the Olympic football tournament for the gold medalists meant six games in a two week span, some of their games needed extra time, all in the sweltering heat of a French summer. The memories of victory will last a lifetime, but Smith won’t miss the grind on her body or managing the intense compressed schedule and quick turnarounds between games.
“We would finish one game, and it would have gone over time. So it’s 120-plus minutes in heat, and the second you walk off the field, you’re already like, oh my God, I need to do everything imaginable to recover to be back to 100% for the next game in two days. It’s a very short amount of time. The day after is an off day, which is needed, but then the day after that is pregame.
“So you have to be sharp and firing on pregame because that’s what gives you momentum into the game. I don’t know if people probably realize how physically demanding that is to do … It’s hard. But honestly, you shut off and just do it, and then at the end, it’s like, oh my God, my body hurts. Like, how did we just do that? But it was so worth it, so I’m not gonna miss the quick turnaround in between games, it’s a lot, and I feel like it’s really only physically possible once every few years which is why that’s what it is,” she quipped.
Her star power is off the charts now compared to when she first started her pro career. She left Stanford University after two years, forging her college career into an early pro start elegantly, and was drafted at 19 years old in 2020. Unable to really kick off her rookie season, as all pro sports were halted due to COVID-19, Smith’s rise to prominence ki in 2021 and reached new heights in 2022. During the 2022 NWSL season, she won the Golden Boot, MVP, and the NWSL Championship final and finals MVP with the Thorns.
After five years in the league, a full international cycle with the national team, and the retirements of former marquee players, it’s evident that Smith’s time is now. There are loud cheers for her efforts when she plays, plenty of Smith jerseys in the stands, and signs by fans at matches. Like any pro athlete winning at the highest levels, her reach and platform have also expanded, and opportunities to use them mean more as time goes on.
Smith’s love of being outdoors
Her latest venture is working with CLIF Bar to partner with Outdoor Afro — a not-for-profit organization that celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. She’s working with the non-profit to organize more outdoor meetups and to connect in different ways with Portland’s African-American community.
“I think being outside is so peaceful, like, it’s always been something that I really love, and has always brought me a lot of peace and comfort, I would say, and especially living in Portland now, like you just have no choice but to spend time outside,” she joked.
“I just thought the concept was so cool and meaningful. Just getting people outside, getting people in nature, doing outdoor activities, whatever that may be, I think is such a cool thing and such initiative to do. I think some people do need help, like getting out there and finding ways to enjoy the outdoors. I wanted to be a part of it because it’s something that resonates with me.”
Part of Outdoor Afro’s purpose is to reconnect Black people to our lands, water, and wildlife through outdoor education, recreation, and conservation. The partnership combines multiple things she’s passionate about, the outdoors and her background.
“I always want to connect with all communities that hold a special place in my heart. Being half black, and actually growing up in Fort Collins, Colorado — it’s a very predominantly white community. It’s getting better, but I did grow up mostly around white people, and so I think for me, growing up and kind of getting out of Fort Collins and seeing the world, it was important to me to kind of connect with the other half of me, and to feel that connection, and to do things and in the African-American community that helped me too, it’s not just a one-way thing,” she explained.
“Connecting with the community, feeling a part of it, and using my platform and my resources to help the African-American community do things like this, has always been so important to me. This opportunity came in, it just felt right, felt like a good opportunity for me to connect with that part of me and to help the community just connect with the outdoors and find that same peace that I find when being outside,” she said.
While she’s found solace in the outdoors, Smith isn’t about to enter herself into a cast of Survivor or climb Mount Everest anytime soon, and uses herself as an example of finding different ways to connect outdoors. She also jokes that she wouldn’t last five minutes on the show Survivor and that she “likes what she likes” while emphasizing the wide spectrum of what being “outdoorsy” means as she would lean a bit more towards “glamping.”
“I think maybe when someone thinks of like being an outdoorsy person, they think of like people in Portland who are like putting the kayaks on their car and driving up into the middle of nowhere and having no service, like that doesn’t have to be what it is — good for the people who love to do that, but there are just so many options. I don’t even know if I classify myself as an outdoorsy person. I find peace in the outdoors, and I think there are a lot of fun activities outside.”
As the NWSL season winds down, for some teams the playoff race heats up, and Portland’s mixed season remains in flux. The club got off to a rocky start with a four-game winless streak with three losses to begin the season. Now they find themselves on another four-game skid. Smith’s efforts are driving factors for the team, she’s scored one goal and created four chances in her three games back with Portland.
Celebrating NWSL growth
The squad is still in playoff position with six games left in the season, and has a chance to qualify for the future FIFA Women’s Club World Cup through the Concacaf W Champions Cup. They’re opportunities that Smith is celebrating, along with key wins for players in the league. National team players returned from the Olympics to a new collective bargaining agreement between the NWSL Players Association and the league.
“I’ve seen the growth, and even the five, six years I’ve been in this league, from when it when I started here, and it’s been just insane. So I can only imagine it’s going to continue to grow so much, and that’s just so good for everyone, and I’m so excited for the even younger generations to be able to be a part of it and just have a better situation than even I had because I had a better situation than the older players,” Smith said on the new CBA.
“That’s what you want. That’s what you want in this league, that’s what you want in any league, in any sports league. So it’s exciting and enough credit couldn’t go to everyone who helped make it happen.”
