Kelley O'Hara American Footballer Born in 1988

Early life

Kelley Maureen O'Hara was born on 4 August 1988 in Fayetteville, Georgia, and grew up in nearby Peachtree City. She attended Starr's Mill High School in Fayette County, where she played four seasons of varsity soccer and captained the team in her junior and senior years. Her school won the Georgia 5A state title in 2006, a season in which she scored 20 goals and set up 16 more. That year she was named the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Player of the Year and the Gatorade Georgia State Player of the Year, and she was a Parade All-American in both her junior and senior seasons. Before that she played for local club sides, and in 2004 and 2005 she joined United States youth national teams at under-16 and under-17 level.

She then enrolled at Stanford University and played for the Stanford Cardinal. She led the team in scoring in 2006 and again in 2007. In her junior year Stanford reached the College Cup for the first time since 1993, and in 2009, her senior year, she scored 26 goals and added 13 assists in a season counted among the strongest in Division I history. Stanford reached the 2009 College Cup final but lost to North Carolina. She finished her college career with 57 goals and 32 assists, both school records at the time, and won the Hermann Trophy as the top player in college soccer in 2009.

Career

O'Hara played for the United States under-20 team from 2006 to 2008, scoring 24 goals in 35 appearances, and was part of the squad that finished fourth at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship. In the summer of 2009 she played for the Pali Blues in the W-League, scoring four goals.

Her professional career began in Women's Professional Soccer. FC Gold Pride selected her third overall in the 2010 draft, and the team won the league championship that year before it closed down in November 2010. She moved to the Boston Breakers for 2011. When the National Women's Soccer League started in 2013 she signed with Sky Blue FC, the club that later became NJ/NY Gotham FC, and in later seasons she played for Utah Royals FC, the Washington Spirit and, from 2023, Gotham again. With the Spirit she scored the winning goal in the 97th minute of the 2021 NWSL Championship final, a 2-1 extra-time victory over the Chicago Red Stars. Her signing with Gotham in free agency made her the first NWSL player to join a new team that way, and she won a second league championship with the club in 2023. On 2 May 2024 she announced that she would retire at the end of that season.

O'Hara made her debut for the senior United States team in March 2010 as a substitute in a friendly against Mexico. Over a career lasting until 2023 she was capped 160 times. She was converted from an attacking player to a full-back in 2012 under coach Pia Sundhage, and she played every minute of the American gold medal run at the London Olympics that year, one of three players to do so. She went to four Women's World Cups. The first, in 2011, brought a silver medal, though she appeared in only one game after being called in as a replacement. In 2015 the United States won the title, and she scored her first international goal in the semi-final against Germany. In 2019 she played in five of the seven games, including the final against the Netherlands, as the team defended its title. Her fourth tournament came in 2023 in Australia. She also played at the 2016 Olympics and at the 2020 Games, held in 2021, where the United States won bronze.

Away from the pitch, she launched a podcast with the website Just Women's Sports in July 2020, which was renamed The Players' Pod in April 2022 and ended in August 2023. She was also an executive producer of the short film Ripe!, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June 2024 and won the award for best narrative short.

Recognition

O'Hara won two FIFA Women's World Cups, in 2015 and 2019, an Olympic gold medal in 2012 and an Olympic bronze in 2020. She was named to the FIFA FIFPRO Women's World 11 in 2019 and was a finalist for the U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year award in 2007 and 2009. In February 2020 she became the youngest person, and the first soccer player, inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. The Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame named her to its class of 2025.