USA Week, Vol. 3

There are people that will tell you that soccer isn't an "American" sport. You should ignore those people. Charitably, they don't quite see the whole picture. Setting aside the fact that soccer only trails basketball and baseball in terms of youth participation, if we turn our sights on the most elite levels of the sport, the U.S. is clearly the top soccer-playing nation in the world and has been in the argument as such since the early 90s. 

Since 1990, only Germany can match the United States' four World Cup titles. The Germans have been more egalitarian, spreading their titles equally across their men's and women's programs. Here at home, the American women have carried the full weight, with their four wins including the last two Women's World Cups.

This is not, despite the way it's started, an American soccer polemic. Nor is it a preview of the 2023 Women's World Cup, which kicks off in less than two weeks in Australia/New Zealand. This post is a celebration of joy, faith and hard work rewarded, and good old-fashioned catharsis.

In recent weeks, U.S. Soccer has been chronicling the calls USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski made to tell players that they'd been selected to the 23-woman roster headed Down Under. From first-timers like Kristie Mewis, who never thought she'd make the World Cup, Sophia Smith, who's tearing up the NWSL, and Savannah DeMelo, who has never appeared in a USWNT match, to veterans like Lindsey Horan and Kelley O'Hara, the videos catch elite athletes in moments vulnerable and then joyous. It's the good stuff:

American women, fuck yeah!

USA Week, Vol. 2

Amy Olson is a journeywoman professional golfer. The 30 year-old North Dakotan is competing in her 10th season on the LPGA Tour. She's earned $2.7m in that time, though she's never won on tour. She finished second in the 2020 U.S. Women's Open, among her career highlights. She's had a nondescript 2022-23 season, only making one cut in the three events she's played, earning $4,804 for a T61 in the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei.

Kinda hard to play golf when your body is changing every day, though, which is a pretty good excuse for her performance this season. Olson, you see, is 30 months pregnant. And at 7:22 am PST this morning, she teed it up at the U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach. 

We'll let her explain:

Talk about impressive! 💪

Even at seven months pregnant, @AmyOlsonGolf did not want to miss the opportunity to compete at Pebble Beach. #USWomensOpen pic.twitter.com/73rifLnHvF

— U.S. Women's Open (USGA) (@uswomensopen) July 4, 2023

Olson won medalist honors at a 36-hole, one-day qualifier in Mendota Heights, MN in May, bouncing back from an even-par first round to shoot a six-under 66 to book a spot in the first women's Open to be played at Pebble. The 405th-ranked player in the world is unlikely to win, or even make the cut, but we know who Team G:TB will be pulling for.

Amy Olson, fuck yeah!

USA Week

Let's keep the flags waving and the celebration* rolling, shall we?

* Not to include concussive explosions, which scare the shit out of my poor anxious dog

Keira D'Amato is a 38 year-old mother of two. She went to Oakton High School in Northern Virginia, then attended American University. She resides in Richmond, where she's a realtor.

Oh, and she just became the fastest female half-marathoner in U.S. history. And she already held the American record in the marathon. 

Both of the stories linked above are worth a read. The TL:DR version is this: after a successful collegiate career, a series of foot injuries quashed D'Amato's competitive running aspirations. Or so she thought. After having her first child, she started running to relieve stress, and realized she was pretty fast. She reconnected with her post-college coach, started training in earnest, and became one of America's best distance runners, while working and raising a family. 

Keira D'Amato, fuck yeah.

If You Can't Say It, You Can't Do It

It's been a big fucking week, my friends. In 2017, a groundbreaking study from Stanford University "...found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level, and with higher integrity at the society level".

Then, early last year, Emma Byrne published Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language, which extolled the virtues of colorful language, from enhancing workplace teamwork to increasing our pain tolerance.

Finally, this week, we moved more deeply into the golden era of the f-bomb.

First, in England, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, at a loss for prosaic verbiage to describe his team's epic Champions League semifinal comeback, said this (the whole thing is great, but the money quote starts around 1:08):



Then, a day later, Golden State Warriors coach, after his team overcame the loss of Kevin Durant to beat Houston in Game 5 of their Western Conference semifinal series, channeled Klopp. Literally:



Both of those teams have mammoth games this weekend, and potentially through June. May their leaders bring their fucking 'A' games.