Julie Maurine Foudy ( ; born January 23, 1971) is an American retired

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, two-time

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's international governing bod ...

champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. She played for the

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles ( 1991, 1999, 2015, an ...

from 1988 to 2004. Foudy finished her international career with 274

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

and served as the team's captain from 2000 to 2004 as well as the co-captain from 1991 to 2000. In 1997, she was the first American and first woman to receive the

FIFA Fair Play Award The FIFA Fair Play Award is a FIFA recognition of exemplary behaviour that promotes the spirit of fair play and compassion in :association football around the world. First awarded in 1987, it has been presented to individuals (including posthu ...

. From 2000 to 2002, Foudy served as president of the

Women's Sports Foundation The Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit charity focused on female involvement in sports. Founded in 1974 by tennis player Billie Jean King and initially supported by Olympic athletes Donna de Varona and Suzy Chaffe ...

. In 2006, she co-founded the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy, an organization focused on developing leadership skills in teenage girls. In 2007, she was inducted into the

National Soccer Hall of Fame The National Soccer Hall of Fame is a private, non-profit institution established in 1979 and currently located in Toyota Stadium (Texas), Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The Hall of Fame honors Association football, soccer ...

with her teammate, Mia Hamm. She is currently an analyst, reporter and the primary

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

for women's soccer telecasts on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Foudy is the author of ''Choose to Matter: Being Courageously and Fabulously YOU'' and appeared in the HBO documentary '' Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team''. She was the executive producer of the documentary short, ''

An Equal Playing Field ''An Equal Playing Field'' is a 2015 sports documentary about American soccer player Christen Press and the challenges of being a women's soccer player. In 2016, it was shown at the Women's Sports Film Festival in Oakland, California Oaklan ...

'', starring Christen Press and producer of the ESPN

Nine for IX ''Nine for IX'' is the title for a series of documentary films which aired on ESPN. The documentaries were produced by ESPN Films in conjunction with espnW, and were intended to have the same creative, story-driven aspect as ESPN Films' other ser ...

episode entitled, ''The 99ers'' featuring some of her teammates from the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup-winning U.S. national team.

Early life

Foudy was born on January 23, 1971, in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

but raised in

Mission Viejo Mission Viejo ( ; corruption of ''Misión Vieja'', Spanish for "Old Mission") is a commuter city in the Saddleback Valley in Orange County, California, United States. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest master-planned communities e ...

. She graduated from

Mission Viejo High School Mission Viejo High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Mission Viejo, California, United States, as part of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. The school has served the area since 1966. Students within ...

in 1989, where she was a two-time First-Team All-American. Foudy was named the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' High School Player of the 1980s and the Player of the Year in southern California for three straight years (1987–1989).

Stanford Cardinal, 1989–1992

Foudy attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, where she was honored as the Stanford Cardinal women's soccer Player of the Year for three straight years (1989–91). She was a four-time NSCAA All-American at Stanford and finished her collegiate career with 52 goals, 32 assists and 136 points in 78 appearances. She was named the 1991 Soccer America Player of the Year and the 1989 Soccer America Freshman of the Year and was a two-time finalist for the

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and th ...

in 1991 and 1992. She helped lead the Cardinal to NCAA tournament playoff berths all four years. She was the recipient of the Stanford Outstanding Freshman, Sophomore and Junior Athlete Award and was named to Soccer America's College Team of the Decade for the 1990s.

Playing career

Club

Sacramento Storm

Foudy played for the

Sacramento Storm California Storm is an American women's soccer team, founded in 1995 as the Sacramento Storm, dropping the city name in favor of California the following season. The team is a member of the Women's Premier Soccer League, the second tier of wom ...

, which won the 1993, 1995 and 1997 California State Amateur championship.

Tyresö FF

In 1994, Foudy played for

Tyresö FF Tyresö Fotbollsförening is a Swedish football club in Tyresö, a municipality in Stockholm County. The club was founded in 1971 and is primarily known for its main women's team, which competed in the top-tier league Damallsvenskan in the 2010� ...

in the Damallsvenskan in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

joining her national team teammates, Michelle Akers,

Mary Harvey Mary Virginia Harvey (born June 4, 1965) is an American retired soccer goalkeeper. She was the starting goalie for 1991 U.S. Women's National Team which won the inaugural 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup; and a member of the 1996 Olympic Gold Med ...

and Kristine Lilly.

San Diego Spirit, 2001–2003

Foudy held the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

's position for her

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Un ...

(WUSA) team, the

San Diego Spirit The San Diego Spirit was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego in San Diego, California. The team began play in 2001. The ...

. She made 59 regular season appearances, scoring eight goals and providing 13 assists. When the WUSA suspended operations in September 2003, Foudy was the official player's representative to the ongoing efforts to resurrect the league.

International

Foudy began traveling with the

as a 16-year-old. She attended the

1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament The 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament, or International Women's Football Tournament, was organised by FIFA in China from 1 to 12 June 1988. The competition was a test to study if a global women's World Cup was feasible following the experie ...

as a non-playing substitute, then made her first appearance against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

at the Mundialito on July 29, 1988. Foudy played in four

tournaments, winning two FIFA Women's World Cups—in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. She played in three

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...

, winning an Olympic gold medal in 1996, Silver in 2000, and Gold again in 2004. Following the 2004 Olympic Games, Foudy joined fellow soccer icons Mia Hamm,

Joy Fawcett Joy Lynn Fawcett (; February 8, 1968) is a retired American professional soccer player. She earned 241 caps with the United States women's national soccer team (WNT) and retired from the WNT in 2004 as the highest scoring defender for the U.S. ...

and

Brandi Chastain Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 ...

in a 10-game "farewell tour" that marked the end of what the media labeled the "golden era" of US women's soccer. The '' St. Petersburg Times'' said the team, "... changed the face of women's soccer".

International goals

Sports broadcasting career

Foudy has served as an in-studio analyst for ABC,

and

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

's coverage of the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

and

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

, and has provided on-air commentary and analysis during United States Women's National Team matches since then. She has also coanchored ABC and

telecasts of the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but th ...

and the 2007 season of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

, including the

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...

. She appeared as a pundit for the ESPN coverage of the

championship finals, together with Andy Gray and

Tommy Smyth Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

. For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, she served as a reporter and analyst, doing features, interviews and analysis in South Africa for

. Foudy is also a reporter for ESPN's investigative program, ''

Outside the Lines ''Outside the Lines'', or also referred to as ''OTL'', is an American television program on ESPN that looks "outside the lines" and examines critical issues in mostly American sports on and off the field of play. The primary host of the show is ...

''. She served as a sportsdesk reporter for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...

coverage of the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. She also fills in for Dana Jacobson on ESPN First Take. Since late-2010, Foudy has been paired with Glenn Davis or Ian Darke on ESPN's primary broadcast team for women's soccer telecasts, as was the case for the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the event ...

. On August 20, 2013,

ESPN Films ESPN Films, formerly known as ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE), is an American production company which produces and distributes sports films and documentaries. It is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (wh ...

teamed up with Foudy to premiere their new

film on the 1999 Women's World Cup Team, ''The 99ers''. The film, directed by Erin Leyden, and produced by Foudy, tells the incredible story of the 1999 United States women's national soccer team, using Foudy's personal behind the scenes footage. Reuniting key players from the 1999 squad and talking with current U.S. players as well, the film examines how women's soccer – and women's sports as a whole – has changed since that epic day at the Rose Bowl. Foudy worked as

's reporter from the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , wint ...

and the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...

. Foudy is the host of the podcast ''Laughter Permitted'', which interviews "trailblazers in sports about the joy/chaos of life and sports."

Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy

The Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy (JFSLA) is an organization focused on sports and leadership for girls founded in 2006 by Foudy and her husband Ian Sawyers. The academy hosts one-week combined sports camp (soccer or lacrosse) and leadership academy for girls age 12–18. The staff includes Olympic gold medalists, World Cup champions and other leaders. The camps are focused on leadership building "on and off the field". According to Foudy, “...having a productive successful team is not about one person or about one part of that team. It’s a successful team which means everyone contributes. When I look back over my U.S. team career our most successful teams which won World Cups and Olympic medals had one common denominator, we all contributed to positive team chemistry.” While conducting a youth soccer clinic in Tampa in 2006, she said that the success of the U.S. women's soccer team in the FIFA World Cup tournaments and Summer Olympics had transformed the way soccer federations internationally think about women's soccer.

Connection to espnW

EspnW's network appeals to young women of GenZ who were born between 1997 and 2012. EspnW was founded in July 2010. EspnW and JFSLA work together to create an inspiring environment to promote young female athletes. These two organizations uses multiple platforms including social media such as twitter, snapchat and Instagram to help promote women's sports.

Honors and awards

Foudy was selected for induction into the

for the class of 2007 alongside former teammate Mia Hamm. Foudy and Hamm's induction was the first all-female class of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame. In 1997, she received the

for her work against child labor, the first American and first woman to win the award. For her accomplishments in soccer in the United States, Foudy was awarded the Golden Blazer in 2015 by

Men in Blazers Men in Blazers is a New York City-based television show, podcast, and digital brand, founded, operated and hosted by Roger Bennett and Michael Davies covering global soccer and its reception in the United States. The two met at a wedding recept ...

. The

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

selected Foudy as Honorary Chair of

National Library Week First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week (NLW) is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the United States each April, typically the second full week. It promotes library use and suppor ...

2017.

Personal and political activism

Boxer Meets with Julie Foudy February 07, 2001

Julie Foudy Brandi Chastain stadium construction site

Foudy has been active in a number of political causes relating to women's rights and workers' rights. In 1998, she received the

in recognition of her advocacy against child labor in sports equipment manufacturing. The year before she had made trip to Pakistan to inspect working conditions at a factory where soccer balls were manufactured for her then-sponsor,

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

. In 2002, Foudy, a former president of the

, was named by

United States Secretary of Education The United States secretary of education is the head of the U.S. Department of Education. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States, and the federal government, on policies, programs, and activities re ...

Rod Paige Roderick Raynor Paige (born June 17, 1933) served as the 7th United States Secretary of Education from 2001 to 2005. Paige, who grew up in Mississippi, moved from college football coach and classroom teacher to college dean and school superinten ...

to the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, a panel charged with reviewing the effects and implementation of the landmark 1972

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

legislation. Foudy and fellow commission member Donna de Varona refused to sign the report authored by the commission, saying that the report downplayed the persistence of gender-based discrimination in school athletics and that some of its recommendations would allow schools to get away with discrimination. They released a minority report recommending that current anti-discrimination policies remain in place. Paige ultimately decided to only pursue the recommendations that earned unanimous support from the commission. Julie Foudy and Ian Sawyers have been married since 1995. Foudy gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Isabel Ann, on January 1, 2007. Their second child, a son named Declan, was born in December 2008. In 2014,

and Julie Foudy worked together to host clinics for young women in Brazil to encourage young women to play soccer. Foudy appeared in the HBO documentary '' Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team''. She also appears in the

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Ne ...

documentary film ''

LFG LFG may refer to: * Landfill gas, a waste gas containing methane and other gases emitted by landfills * Lexical functional grammar, a theory of syntax * Lagged Fibonacci generator, an example of a pseudorandom number generator * "Looking for grou ...

''.

References

External links

*
Julie Foudy Soccer Camps Official site

Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy Official site

San Diego Spirit player profile

ESPN Bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Foudy, Julie 1971 births Living people American women's soccer players United States women's international soccer players Women's association football midfielders Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Women's Olympic soccer players of the United States Olympic gold medalists for the United States in soccer Olympic silver medalists for the United States in soccer American Youth Soccer Organization players Soccer players from San Diego Stanford Cardinal women's soccer players Women's United Soccer Association players San Diego Spirit players Washington Freedom players Association football commentators American television sports announcers FIFA Century Club 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players Sportspeople from Mission Viejo, California Tyresö FF players FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players Major League Soccer broadcasters Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics American expatriate women's soccer players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden American expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Damallsvenskan players Women's Sports Foundation executives Women association football commentators Women sports announcers Women sports journalists National Soccer Hall of Fame members California Storm players National Women's Soccer League commentators American soccer commentators Mission Viejo High School alumni