Angela Poe Russell: The Olympic moment that spoke volumes about America

Sometimes as we go about our lives, it can be easy to take things we enjoy for granted.

I was reminded of this after the U.S. Women’s Soccer team won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This was huge because the women’s team hadn’t won Olympic gold in soccer in more than 12 years. The team just got a new head coach in the legendary Emma Hayes from England. In fact, she’d only been on the job 72 days and after the electric gold medal match, take note of what Hayes had to say.

“I love America,” Emma Hayes told Mike Tirico after winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. “It made me, and I always say that. It definitely made me.”

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Here was a woman who grew up in England and spent 15 years successfully coaching Chelsea FC; and her statement upon winning was “I was born in England, but made in America. I love America.”

While I wasn’t there to ask why she feels that way, I do have a theory. Quite simply, America offered her opportunities England could not. England is playing catch up when it comes to women and girls having equal opportunities to play soccer or football recreationally and professionally.

In 1921, the country banned women’s football. That ban lasted 50 years and, as you know, even when laws change, it can take a while for culture to catch up. At the first women’s World Cup in 1991 that featured 12 teams, England wasn’t one of them.

England didn’t get their first professional women’s soccer league until 2018. By this time, Hayes had done coaching stints in New York and Chicago. Her dad was the one who encouraged her to head to the U.S. because women’s soccer was booming over there.

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This wouldn’t have been possible without Title IX passing in 1972. The number of girls playing sports in high school increased tenfold in a span of 30 years. In college, the percentage of female athletes tripled.

It was just last year when England passed a measure requiring girls have equal access to all school sports. So when the Women’s National Team Coach Emma Hayes said she was “made in America,” I feel that.

During an election year when things can feel so ugly and folks are strained financially to such a degree, this is a nice reminder that we are doing some good stuff here. It’s also an inspiration to ensure that the “land of opportunity” isn’t just something we say, but a hope we continue to fulfill.

Angela Poe Russell is a local media personality and a fill-in host on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of her stories here.

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