Paris Olympics 2024 Reprise: U.S. Women’s Soccer Coach Emma Hayes

American Women Played Tough In The 2024 Games

And the biggest star of Team USA in this Olympics was not a player—it was their coach: Emma Hayes.

The U.S. defeated Brazil in the gold medal match of the women's soccer tournament in Paris. Saturday's 1-0 victory gave the American women their fifth Olympic gold medal.

It was the end of a long drought for the U.S. team, which had not won an Olympic gold medal since 2012 in London. The U.S. was knocked out in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Games in Rio, and had to settle for bronze three years ago in Tokyo.

The U.S. would win every game at these Olympics, never trailing. They had some close contests, including overtime in dramatic back-to-back 1-0 games to defeat Japan in the quarterfinals and Germany in the semis. And Coach Emma Hayes was the biggest difference maker in their turnaround. Like everyone who reaches such heights, Hayes was a nobody at some point.

The coach, who has become known over the course of her career for tactical flexibility, introspective answers to the media and a ruthless desire to win, speaks often about how she was "born in England, but made in America."

Born In England

Emma Carol Hayes was born in 1976 in Camden, London England. As a young girl in north London Hayes world was "filled with football." Her heroes were male: Diego Maradona of Argentina for example. She began playing for Arsenal's football academy in 1988 at 12 years of age. She was a midfielder and she loved it. A ski accident in 1996 would badly damage an ankle and derail her career as a player at 17. She was inconsolable for awhile before ultimately going back to school.

University Studies And 007

Emma would attend Liverpool Hope University graduating in 1999. Hayes studied European Studies, Spanish and Sociology at Liverpool Hope. Her intention was to become a spy, and a master's in intelligence and international affairs followed. "She can tell if you're lying," says her father Sid. "She learned all these tricks. But when they started teaching how to assassinate people and that, it was time to leave."

At Hope Hayes would stay connected to football by coaching the women's team from 1997 to 1999. After graduation she would move back to London.

But Made In The USA

Hayes grew restless with where the sport of women's soccer was in England. She concluded: "This is my time to change. I need to go where the elite is in this sport, where it's the most professional, where I'm going to learn, where I'm going to grow and it's going to be America.' She just hated the culture, the hurdles, and the politics. So with $1,000 and a backpack full of clothes she moved to Long Island in 2001 to help run youth soccer camps.

She then took over coaching the Long Island Lady Riders, at 25 becoming the youngest head coach in W-League history. By 2004 she had assumed coaching women's soccer full time at Iona College in New York.

Back To England

Hayes returned to London in 2006 to coach the women's team at Arsenal over 3 seasons between 2005 and 2008, during which time the team won 11 major trophies including three Women's Premier League titles, three FA Women's Cups and the UEFA Women's Cup. While also running it's Youth Academy. While there she was mentored by legendary Arsenal Head Coach Vic Akers.

The Chicago Red Stars

In 2008 Hayes was lured back to America by a chance to coach with the launch of a new women's professional league. Joining the Chicago Red Stars, Hayes demonstrated her talent for recruitment. She selected as her second overall pick in the 2009 draft a young University of Portland forward: a certain Megan Rapinoe. Then in 2010 she was fired. Hayes was devastated and would leave coaching and return to London and help in the family business.

London Olympics 2012

Hayes would attend the London Games with her father, Sid, including the women's soccer final in Wembley Stadium between Japan and the U.S. team. The two of them would watch the medals ceremony where team USA, Japan and Canada all collected their medals. Sid recalls. "Emma said: 'Dad, you see those 50 people out there? I've coached 40 of them.' I thought: 'Wow, but you're sitting here unemployed?' It was time to come back."

That month, August 2012, she took the job coaching the Chelsea Women's Club.

Building a Dynasty From Scratch

At Chelsea she had to build the club from the ground up. Prior to her arrival Chelsea was an amateurish operation and an afterthought in the women's league. Hayes changed all that. She built everything at Chelsea, from washing uniforms to implementing a food training table to getting a separate building for the women, as well as training fields. She made Chelsea into a professional organization, but everything was a fight to do that.

This has long been one of Hayes' special talents: a holistic view of her operation. According to long-time coaching colleague Lisa Cole, Hayes knows great tactics mean less without the rest: sports science, medical, operations. "Her ability to connect those two things, I think, is what has made her a bit remarkable, and also gets real buy-in from players," Cole said. "I think they feel cared for and listened to, and when she asks them to do something, I think they feel that it's not just an opinion. It's something that's been backed by who they personally are."

And then Hayes would win. And win, and win, and win.

Emma Hayes would win 16 trophies during her 12-year tenure at Chelsea including:

League titles: Chelsea won the FA Women's Super League seven times, including five in a row from 2019–20 to 2023–24; UEFA Women's Champions League Final: Hayes led Chelsea to its first-ever appearance in the 2020 final.

Hayes's achievements at Chelsea transformed the club from relative obscurity to a global leader in women's football. And then in 2024 she would get the invitation to coach Team USA in Paris. And the rest is history.

Fast Forward: October 2024

Last month Emma Hayes won the inaugural Johan Cruyff Awards, given to the best coaches in the men's and women's games in the world, at the 2024 Ballon d'Or ceremony. It was a crowning moment in a 25-year journey that began with a $1,000, a backpack and a plane ticket to New York.