South SFV Today

The United States Women’s National Team, featuring former Cardinal Tierna Davidson, Naomi Girma, and Sophia Smith, secured a record fifth gold medal in women’s soccer on Saturday after defeating Brazil 1-0 in the Olympic final.

While this marks the first Olympic gold for the trio, the Olympic medal is the second of Davidson’s career after helping the U.S. to a bronze at the Tokyo Games in 2020. Jane Campbell, an alternate in 2024, also earned bronze playing alongside Davidson in Tokyo.

One of the top defenders in the world, Girma played every minute of the Olympics for the United States at center back, helping the U.S. post four clean sheets in six matches. Proving herself a weapon on the attack for the United States, Smith scored three goals and added two assists. She was directly involved in a goal in four of the USA’s six matches at the 2024 Olympics.

Davidson missed the group stage final and quarterfinal match but returned to the starting lineup and U.S. backline for both semifinal and gold-medal matches – a pair of 1-0 victories over Germany and Brazil.

With three more added to this list, Stanford women’s soccer has now had seven former players win gold with the United States in Olympic competition – compiling ten gold medals in total. Julie Foudy, who was on broadcast call for the final against Brazil, was first to capture gold in 1996 and then again in 2004. Nicole Barnhart and Rachel Buehler teamed for gold in 2008 before being joined by Kelley O’Hara on the 2012 gold-medal squad.

Prior to guiding the United States to victory, Davidson, Girma, and Smith led Stanford to national championships while on The Farm. Each player ultimately became No. 1 overall pick in their respective NWSL draft classes: Davidson from 2017 national champions selected No. 1 overall in 2019 NWSL draft; Smith and Girma were sophomores on 2019 national championship squad before going No. 1 overall respectively in drafts of 2020 and 2022.