Kathryn Michele Markgraf (; born August 23, 1976) is the former General Manager of 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 governed by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central Ameri ...

and a retired American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

defender. She previously played for the

Chicago Red Stars Chicago Stars Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the Chicago metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league as the Chic ...

in the WPS, the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional women's soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defu ...

in the WUSA, and the

. She was a three-time

Olympic medalist This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Sports that will appear in the 2028 Summer Olympics ar ...

(2000, silver; 2004, gold; 2008, gold as team co-captain) and played in three

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

(1999, gold; 2003, bronze; 2007, bronze) tournaments. She started in 97% of her 201 United States Women's National Team appearances in her 12-year career. She ended her career with a high school championship, state club championship, NCAA Division I championship, Olympic gold medals, and a FIFA World Cup Championship. In 2023, she was inducted into the

National Soccer Hall of Fame The National Soccer Hall of Fame is a public-private partnership among FC Dallas, the City of Frisco, Frisco Independent School District, and the U.S. Soccer Federation, and currently located in Toyota Stadium (Texas), Toyota Stadium in Frisco, T ...

Early life

Markgraf was born in

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is ...

and attended Detroit Country Day School. At Detroit Country Day, she helped guide the soccer team to the state title in 1991, scoring 16 goals with 26 assists. She was also a

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player making the All-League team three times and was recruited at the Division III level.Kate Markgraf – U.S. Soccer
Archived fro
the original
on 2012-10-08. In soccer, she made the NSCAA All-American team one time and was chosen for the All-State team for all three seasons she played.

University of Notre Dame

Markgraf attended the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

and graduated with a degree in

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

-Business. She was a three-time NSCAA All-American, a three-time all

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

selection, the 1997 Big East defensive player of the year, and the defensive MVP of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

's Final Four in 1995, the year in which her team won the NCAA women's soccer championship. She also co-captained the team her senior year. She also earned Dean's List for one semester.

Playing career

Club, 2001–2010

Markgraf was a member of the

in the WUSA league for three seasons, and she was named defender of the year for the Breakers in 2001. In 2005, she played professionally for KIF Örebro in the Swedish league alongside longtime USA teammate Kristine Lilly. She was scheduled to play with the

in the WUSA's successor,

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

, in its inaugural 2009 season. However, the Red Stars announced in January 2009 that she would not play that season because she was expecting her second child. Ten months after giving birth to twins, she returned to the Red Stars in 2010, played nearly every minute of the season, and made the All-Star team. 2010 was her final professional season.

International, 1998–2010

In 1998, she made her international debut for the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, with Sobrero on the back of her jersey. She switched to Markgraf on the back of her jersey in 2004. She was the least experienced starter in the winning 1999 World Cup team and one of the youngest members of the team. The

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

selected her to the All-World top 11 for her play at centerback that tournament. She started in the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Games in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, and was Co-Captain for the 2008 Games in Beijing. She won the silver medal in 2000, the gold in 2004, and the gold in 2008. She played 12 matches in 3

, winning the title of World Champion in the 1999 World Cup hosted by the US. She was also a member of the teams that finished third in the 2003 World Cup hosted by the US and the 2007 World Cup hosted by China. In July 2010, after nearly a two-year break from international competition, she made her 200th career international appearance, in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. She became the 10th woman in FIFA history to earn her 200th

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

, a mark no male player has reached. She subsequently announced her retirement from the sport at the end of the WPS season, ending her professional career after playing 201 times for her country.

International goals

Broadcasting

Markgraf was paired with

Adrian Healey Adrian Healey is an English football commentator, currently working for ESPN and most recently with MLS Season Pass broadcasts on Apple TV. He is a veteran football commentator in the U.S., working for networks such as ESPN; he was part of the ...

as a

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 person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's secondary broadcast team for the telecasts of 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 List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, football teams. It was held from 26 June to ...

. She worked as a color commentator for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

during the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

and 2016 Rio Olympics. She has also worked as commentator for several US women's national team games on

Fox Soccer Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by 21st Century Fox, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian ...

and ESPN, as well as for college soccer on the

Big Ten Network Big Ten Network (BTN) is an American sports network based in Chicago, Illinois. The channel is dedicated to coverage of College athletics, collegiate sports sanctioned by the Big Ten Conference, including live and recorded event telecasts, news ...

. She worked for

ESPN FC ESPN FC (formerly ESPN SoccerNet) is a website and a U.S. television studio program covering soccer that is broadcast daily over the streaming service ESPN+. ESPN FC's origin was a website owned by ESPN Inc. Originally established in 1995 as Soc ...

during the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the f ...

as a studio analyst and often appeared on

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

during the tournament. She continued to work for

in 2016, this time as a color analyst for men's soccer during the

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

Soccer envoy

In 2012, Kate Markgraf traveled with Tony Sanneh to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

on behalf of the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

and

US Soccer The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of soccer in the United States. It is a full member of FIFA and governs American soccer at ...

to work with Somalian youth in the Ethiopian city of

Dire Dawa Dire Dawa (; , meaning"where the Dir (clan), Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", , Harari language, Harari: ድሬዳዋ, lit. "Plain of Medicine"; ) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Somali Region and Oromia, Oromo borde ...

. In 2013, she went to Chile, and in 2014, she went to Peru, again on behalf of the United States Department of State and US Soccer.

Coaching career

In 2009, she was a volunteer assistant coach of the

Marquette Golden Eagles The Marquette Golden Eagles are an athletic team representing Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. They compete as a member of the NCAA Division I level (non-football, sub-level), primarily competing in the Big East Conf ...

. She now only coaches her twins' soccer team.

Personal life

She is a mother of three kids, a son named Keegan in September 2006 and a set of twins, a girl Carson and a boy Xavier, in the summer of 2009. As of 2008, Markgraf lived with her husband and their children in the

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

area. She has served on the Juvenile Law Center Board and is a member of the Notre Dame Monogram Club Board of Directors, as well as co-sponsored Milwaukee College Prep (MCP; a charter school), a fundraiser benefiting under-served Milwaukee students. She has co-created life-skills programming for Milwaukee America-Scores and runs soccer clinics for various charities. In 2015, she graduated with a Masters in Kinesiology from the

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

with her research being selected to be presented at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

References

External links

*
US Soccer bio

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Markgraf, Kate 1976 births Living people Detroit Country Day School alumni American women's soccer players United States women's international soccer players Women's association football central defenders Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's soccer players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in soccer Olympic silver medalists for the United States in soccer Women's United Soccer Association players Boston Breakers (WUSA) players People from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Soccer players from Oakland County, Michigan Sportspeople from Pontiac, Michigan American people of Italian descent FIFA Women's Century Club Chicago Red Stars players Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players FIFA Women's World Cup–winning players KIF Örebro DFF players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Damallsvenskan players American expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Women association football commentators American soccer commentators Women's Professional Soccer players United States women's national soccer team non-playing staff National Soccer Hall of Fame members 21st-century American sportswomen Marquette Golden Eagles women's soccer College women's soccer coaches in the United States 20th-century American sportswomen