- Portland Thorns midfielder Olivia Moultrie won her first NWSL championship at 17 years old.
- The teenage prodigy says realizing her dreams "so early" gives her time to "try to get six more."
Olivia Moultrie is technically — by government standards, at least — still a child.
But the 17-year-old soccer phenom is already living out childhood dreams, and she's doing it on one of the biggest stages her sport has to offer.
Moultrie helped the Portland Thorns hoist the 2022 National Women's Soccer League championship trophy in October, contributing three goals and four assists through 20 appearances on the season. And after waging a age-related legal battle against the NWSL for the right to take the field in the first place, the trailblazer recalled the surreal feeling of the moment "when the whistle blew in the championship."
"It was such a cool moment — just jitters the whole time," Moultrie told Insider. "Like, couldn't even come down from the high kind of thing.
"I don't even know if I processed it for a second," she added. "Obviously winning championships is a big part of what I wanna do in my career."
Moultrie gave herself a couple days to celebrate the feat. But then, as she and her teammates prepared "to separate and head into the off-season and go home," the teenage sensation was ready to focus on the following season's goal of trying "to go win it again."
That's part of the beauty of realizing her dreams "so early," Moultrie said; she still has a full professional soccer career ahead of her.
After all, had she followed through on the scholarship offer she had accepted from UNC at 11 years old, Moultrie technically wouldn't have even started her collegiate soccer career until this coming fall. Instead, she's already a professional with a title to her name.
"Like, I'm 17 and we just won a championship," Moultrie said. "And I get to do it and try for it and work for it so many more times.
"I got one and now I can try to get six more kind of thing," she added. "So it was a really cool, pretty good start."
The Thorns are 2-1-0 through the first three games of the 2023 NWSL campaign. Moultrie has appeared in all three contests and earned a start against the Houston Dash.