June 26, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
San Diego Wave FC News Release
SAN DIEGO – San Diego Wave FC and U.S. Soccer announced today defender Naomi Girma and forward Jaedyn Shaw have been named to the 18-player U.S. Women’s National Team for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Girma and Shaw are first-time Olympians, while Shaw will also be partaking in her first senior level world championship.
Girma, 24, will feature in her first Olympics after a historic year of being named the 2023 U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year and starting in all 16 of the USWNT’s matches. Girma was the first pure defender to win the award in the 39 years it has been given out, following a year where she played a large role in leading the U.S. defense to its lowest ever goals against average (0.17) in a calendar year (minimum 10 games played). Girma was a key player at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, as she helped the defense allow just one goal and a total of two shots on goal over the four matches.
Shaw, the youngest player on the USWNT roster, will make her Olympic debut with the USWNT just nine months after her senior team debut on Oct. 26, 2023. The nineteen-year-old has scored seven goals and recorded one assist in her 14 appearances with her country. Shaw currently leads the team in goals-scored (5) this year, as the teenager from Texas is the first player in USWNT history to score a goal in each of her first five starts. Before being named to the senior team, Shaw spent time with the U. S. Women’s Youth National Teams and was named the U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year in 2022.
“Making an Olympic roster is a huge privilege and an honor and there is no denying that it was an extremely competitive process among the players and that there were difficult choices, especially considering how hard everyone has worked over the past 10 months,” said USWNT Head Coach Emma Hayes. “Choosing an 18-player roster plus alternates involved many considerations, but I am excited for the group we have selected and I’m looking forward to building on the work from last camp as we head into the Send-Off matches and then onto France. These are great opportunities for us to continue to show the progress we are making.”
The USWNT will be part of Group B alongside Australia, Zambia, and Germany. The Olympics for women’s soccer will be held in seven cities, with the United States playing in two cities – Marseille and Nice. The U.S. will kick off their Olympic campaign…