'A world class talent' - USWNT defender Naomi Girma has the sport's attention after her performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics

The U.S. Women’s National Team collected a remarkable fifth gold medal at the Paris Olympics with a brand new coach and a generationally young team. Touting their youngest Olympic roster since 2008, and fielding the youngest starting XI in a gold medal match since 1996, the world is officially on notice.

This team is good. And very likely, they’ll be trophy-contending competitors for years to come. Central to this generation’s still burgeoning promise is San Diego Wave centerback Naomi Girma, whose clutch defending and calm ball control sets the tempo for the team, inspiring Emma Hayes’ to remark after beating Germany a second time: “Look, she’s the best defender I’ve ever seen.”

Girma was formally introduced on the world stage at the 2023 World Cup, where she played every minute for the US in what became the team’s worst performance in World Cup history. Despite the result, Girma performed her role with notable aplomb: the team allowed just two shots on target and one goal en route to a Round of 16 collapse. Girma’s performance down under caught the world’s attention, causing Arsenal’s Swedish manager Jonas Eidevall to remark after the team’s defeat that she was, “...astonishing, a world-class talent”.

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Still just 23, Girma collected her 40th USWNT appearance in last Saturday’s gold medal match, guiding the US to their ninth international championship (more than every other country combined).

Alongside veteran goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, Girma played every minute of the tournament once again, clocking 600 minutes in six games as further entrenched herself as a world class defensive talent, and a leader for the generation to come.

Defending their way to gold

Forwards often steal the headlines, especially when they combine for 10 of 12 team goals— more goals than any other team in the Olympics. But this summer’s gold medal relied as heavily on the USWNT’s defensive prowess as it did that formidable front-line force. A special word must be saved for Naeher, who became the first goalkeeper in Olympics history to keep a shutout in the quarterfinal, semfinal and final of the Games, as well as the first keeper in women’s football history to keep a shutout in the final of both a World Cup (2019) and the Olympics.

But Girma coordinated just in front of her in every minute of the tournament, helping contribute to those stats. Naeher is a big fan of Girma, unsurprisingly, saying “I think the world of Naomi. I think she plays just with a calmness and a steadiness."

That stoic reliability guided the US from their opening game to the Gold Medal match this summer, and set records along the way. In their opening match against Zambia, Girma completed 79/82 passes for a 96.3 pass accuracy, the highest average in the women’s Olympics since 2012. As the team faced myriad challenges in the ensuing five matches, Girma kept up that pace of composure of the ball, ending the tournament with a 95% pass accuracy across all games—- the highest in the Olympics.

When the team was under pressure, Girma’s defending and recoveries were just as strong. She led the team with 29 clearances, and tied Rodman with a team-leading six interceptions, and fell short of just Crystal Dunn and Korbin Albert for tackles won.

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Girma’s former Stanford teammate, Sophia Smith, spoke on the confidence Girma instills within the team, saying “She's the best defender in the world. No one can get past her. She's the glue to our team. She really locks it down. And I know that everyone on the field feels so confident that whenever the ball is in and around the box, we're gonna get it out. We have Nay back there.”

Mallory Swanson, who led the team with four goals and two assists in the Games, echoed that praise.

“.When I look at Nay, it's just steady," she said. "She's steady. And that's something that you need. And winning balls, completing passes, creating the tempo every game, it's been consistent from her. And obviously [she’s] one of the best center backs in the world, if not the best.”

Leadership for the future

The USA’s Cali-born Stanford grad is a natural leader. Since the Wave drafted Girma first overall in the 2022 NWSL Draft, she’s evinced clear leadership qualities on and off field at both the club and national level. In Hayes’ first game in charge this past June in Colorado, she honored that leadership potential, and displayed her faith in Girma as a future leader of this team. When the USA’s current captain, Lyon midfielder Lindsey Horan, subbed off the pitch, Hayes instructed that Girma should take up the band. Commenting on the decision afterward, Hayes told the media:

“You’ve seen the way I managed players at Chelsea. In the absence of senior players, I like to develop younger players into leadership.”

In the ensuing months, Girma has taken up the armband when Horan subs off the pitch again, including in this summer’s Olympics. Under the tutelage of Hayes - a manager renowned for her development of players - there’s reason to believe 23-year-old Girma’s abilities as a leader will continue to grow.

“I’ve never seen a player as good as her in the back. She's got everything, poise, composure, she defends, she anticipates, she leads. I mean, wow. Unbelievable," Hayes said about Girma.

Unbelievable indeed. And remarkably, like many of the teammates around her, Girma’s still at the start of her career, on the ascent toward her full potential.