USWNT at the Olympics: Is it gold medal or bust for Emma Hayes and company in Paris?

It’s been less than a year since U.S. Soccer announced their new head coach of the women’s national team. Emma Hayes was hired as the official USWNT manager back in December and recently joined the sidelines in June. The new coaching staff and players have only had four games in their build-up to the Summer Olympics, and the group is undefeated under Hayes, so what can we expect from the national team in the Olympics?

The general expectation is for the U.S. to win any competition they compete it, but could it be different this time around?

Let’s take a look at their journey and what type of success they can achieve:

How they got here

The senior women’s national team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics back in 2022. Led by former head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the USWNT 23-player roster for the Concacaf W Championship clinched spots in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Summer Olympics The USWNT won their group and succeeded in winning the qualifying tournament, not only sealing their place in the World Cup and the Olympics but also the inaugural 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup. 

The senior team experienced their worst-ever finish at the 2023 World Cup — an exit during the round of 16 — but bounced back with a title title-winning run at the W Gold Cup. The current 2024 Olympic roster features just nine names from that initial 2022 qualifying roster with plenty of turnover taking pace ever since.  Andonovski was dismissed, and a months-long search was conducted till the U.S. federation landed on Hayes.

The nine-month period till Hayes arrived was led by then-interim and now full-time USWNT assistant coach Twila Kilgore. In a collaborative period between the two coaches, where Kilgore also spent time in London with Hayes, they shaped the build-up toward the Olympics. Several players earned their first national team camp call-ups and earned their first senior debuts, and the Paris Olympic roster features several first-time Olympians.

Gold medal or bust?

It would be only slightly unfair to place all the pressure of a gold medal run on this particular roster ahead of the Olympics. A well-oiled machine that constantly ran the gauntlet whenever a major international cycle reared its head, any expectations of gold are there due to the ongoing culture of winning.

However, the reality is the national team has been chasing gold since their previous top finish during the London Games in 2012. The same expectations for a gold medal were there during the 2016 Rio Olympics, where the program suffered its first-ever non-medal exit and set in motion a very minor change of the roster, where the majority of player rotation mostly occurred due to injury and retirements. 

Expectations were there again during the Tokyo Olympics. With multiple members of the 2019 World Cup-winning team leading the way under a new coach in Andonovski, he showed few signs of efficient game planning or tactical adjustments during a then year-delayed Olympic games due to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Despite repeated attempts to deliver the gold, the players on the current roster with Olympic experience have only tasted the glory of bronze. A top-place finish in Paris would be a first-time gold medal for all players involved and the first since 2012. 

Process over podium

So will these Olympic games be considered a bust if this roster does not win the gold medal? Well, the answer is hardly definitive because it depends on who is answering. The measurement of success could be just one or even a combination of things. Die-hards will want the long-elusive gold, while other invested supporters may even hold grace for what is considered a bigger prize — a return to World Cup glory.

If the USWNT Olympic squad makes a triumphant return to first place on the podium, it’ll be lauded as a success where the program is “back” to glory and on its way to world dominance again. Even if they secure silver, or repeat as bronze medalists, it will be a temperature check on program protocol where they over-achieved during a time of program overhaul and are ahead of their rebuilding schedule. 

No third medal match or podium appearance at all could just be a symbol of the bigger, longer, picture for Hayes and U.S. Soccer — an era in which to evolve, not redefine, the U.S. women’s national team program. 

The USWNT skipper has been vocal about player onboarding and processes as keys to future success. A future that she’ll have with the program through at least the 2027 World Cup, the main target to get the team back on track.

USWNT’s group stage schedule

All times U.S./Eastern

• July 25: USWNT vs. Zambia, 3 p.m. (USA Network, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
• July 28: USWNT vs. Germany, 3 p.m. (Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
• July 31: Australia vs. USWNT, 1 p.m. (Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)