Carli Lloyd, the two-time World Cup winner and double Olympic gold medallist, recently wrote an article for Women’s Health magazine. She spoke movingly of her secret journey of unexplained infertility and IVF treatment, culminating in a joyous development: she is now pregnant, and expecting her first child in October.
Post-retirement and now aged 41, Lloyd wrote that her “heart has come alive” and explained how, for the first time, she feels able to open up and allow herself to be vulnerable.
This is not Carli Lloyd, the player, that people think they know.
“People had to get used to that,” she tells The Athletic. “They had to understand me a little bit more. But the fanbase and media only saw the competitor Carli. They only saw me with raging, bulging eyes, like I wanted to hurt somebody and be the ultra, uber-competitor. And that was the way that I was going to be able to survive.
“And when I look back at my career and reflect, ‘Would I have done things differently?’, I do think I maybe would have tried to enjoy things a little bit more. But I had to have a guard up, because I had some coaches that kind of stabbed me in the back. And you’re part of a team where everybody’s competing with one another. So that guard stayed up until I announced my…
