Lynn Williams' leg sleeve is a symbol of self-liberation in a cutthroat sport

The red one-leg sleeve that Lynn Williams sported at the 2024 Paris Olympics was both a fashion statement and necessity.

For Williams, a serial goal-scorer and forward for the U.S. women’s national team and New Jersey/New York Gotham FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, there aren’t many things that keep her off the pitch. There also isn't much that keeps her from finding the back of the net: not a slinged-up elbow, nor the loss of a cleat — not even both at the same time.

Those familiar with Williams’ game were perhaps less surprised to bear witness to 31-year-old’s open-hearted embrace of the one-leg sleeve she wore throughout the USWNT’s journey to Olympic gold, fashioning it to complement the USWNT’s kit colors throughout the tournament and delighting fans in the process.

Williams is the all-time leading scorer in the NWSL, having notched 79 goals and counting. Her Olympic heroics as an alternate at the 2021 Games in Tokyo, recording an assist and a goal in a knife’s edge semifinal against the Netherlands, kept the U.S. women’s national team in medal contention.

She’s a four-time NWSL champion and the only player in league history to have won so big on three different teams. She’s also a self-described "underdog" and just as proud of her grit as she is of her Fresno roots in Central California.

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In “Under Pressure,” the Netflix documentary about the USWNT’s run at the 2023 World Cup, she was considered a cusp player, never quite cemented as on or off a roster, in or out of the spotlight within the team.

She’s been transparent about the challenge of embodying that identity as a player while competing - and yet she rarely wastes a moment, whether it’s an attempt at goal or an opportunity to terrorize a full back in their own half with her signature all-in defensive pressure.

Players like Williams have no choice but to learn how to build themselves up from within if they want to continue playing.

“I’m a fighter and a little fall is not going to stop me from playing,” Williams said after scoring a game-winning goal for Gotham last year with her elbow in a sling. “We want to come out here and we want to get three points so, I’ll put my body on the line to do that."

In the case of her Olympic sleeves, Williams’ ability to roll with the absurdities of the game coincided with her identity as a style icon.

According to US Soccer, "The leg sleeve is for injury prevention/maintenance/support. It’s good for muscle compression/increased blood flow, etc. for the leg."

It just so happened that color always seemed to go with the kit she wore. Long before the stockings entered the discourse, she’d been knitting funky, chunky accessories and filming 'Get Ready With Us' videos with her now-fiancé, Marley Biyendolo.

Recently, she’s dabbled in jewelry design through a partnership with the e-commerce site Local Eclectic. She was always going to make the leg sleeve her own, just as she’s done with her ever-shifting role on the USWNT.

She needed just four minutes after subbing on for Sophia Smith in the team’s first Olympics meeting with Germany in the group stage to score a goal, after all.

She wore the red sleeve that day.