Episode Intro and Welcome

Caitlin: Hi, I’m Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I’m Alex.

Caitlin: And you’re listening to Raising the Game, a podcast covering the rise, opportunity, visibility, and accessibility of women’s sports globally. We’re a husband-and-wife team who are avid sports fans raising two young girls, and we find the exposure and investment in women’s sports to be a gateway for them — and other young girls like them — to see their passions for play, performance, and leadership. Not as extracurriculars to be added to a resume or a discipline with an expiration date after high school, but as a real opportunity to build a career as an athlete, a coach, an analyst, an athletic trainer, a director of sports operations, or maybe even a podcaster.

Each week we’re bringing you the top stories in women’s professional, and sometimes collegiate, sports. We’ll highlight prime time performers, key business decisions, economic impacts, and the growing opportunities for women’s athletics. You’ll hear our perspectives on these stories as fans, but perhaps more importantly as parents who value what these stories mean for our kids. If there’s a storyline or topic you’d like to hear us talk about, reach out via email or on social media at RTGpod on Instagram, Threads, and YouTube.

Alex: Yeah, we did it. We’re doing it. We’re doing it again. First official episode!

Caitlin: First official episode! And I think before we dive into this episode — we’ll do Favorite Thing after this — but we just wanted to start by saying, if you couldn’t tell from our accents, you certainly would be able to tell by which teams we cheer loudest for on this podcast, that we are from the great state of Minnesota and live close to the Twin Cities area.

Community Acknowledgment: Twin Cities

Caitlin: If you’re following along with the news, tensions have been high. Communities are in a bit of disarray these days. And we felt like it was important to acknowledge that. Obviously we come here to talk about sports, but there are things going on in the world that are bigger than sports. The last couple of weeks have been hard for our communities here, and we really want to call attention to opportunities for our audience to support people in those communities.

Something that came to mind as we were talking about this: a lot of restaurants that we really like to go to have either shuttered or are doing limited service with some of the disruption that’s going on in our city. So we’re actually going to link in our bio and show notes for this episode ways you can support those eateries, and a few other funds that go towards supporting families. We just wanted to start with that. Of course we also love sport because it’s something that brings us together, so we are going to get into this week’s episode.

Alex: Let’s do it.

Favorite Things: Unrivaled Basketball and Podcast Growth

Caitlin: Let’s start off with Favorite Thing from the past week. So I was trying to think about what this would be. We’ve been spending the last couple of weeks working on how we pull these episodes together, what we’re going to talk about. We’ve shared them with a very small group of trusted people. Something that was really cool was I shared it with a mentor and coworker of mine, and she immediately gave it a listen and then turned around and said, “Hey, do you want tickets to go to a women’s college gymnastics meet? You need more material for your podcast.” And I was like, yeah, absolutely! It was cool — this is a person I have a lot of respect for, and hearing her feedback was awesome. But then also getting the benefit of exposure to different sports we probably would have never gone to otherwise.

Alex: What about you? My favorite thing this past week — I really love Unrivaled. Four nights straight of just women’s basketball. It’s fast-paced, it’s fun. I think anybody can win on any night, no matter what your record is. I think the Lunar Owls are 0–4 as of this recording — they’re about to play — but I think they could get one out right here. Four nights in a row, you have a whole weekend to look forward to. It’s great.

Caitlin: Yeah, I just want to add to that quickly: another person we’ve been sharing the pod with texted me out of the blue while we’re watching Unrivaled on Saturday night, and he was just like, “Dude, watching Unrivaled, this is so cool.” This is a person who probably wouldn’t have watched Unrivaled unless we had talked about it. He said he didn’t even know it existed. So it feels cool — even in this small circle, we’re starting to create some exposure for these leagues.

Episode Headlines

Alex: All right, let’s look at our headlines. Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Both have been dealing with different injury things they’ve had to navigate throughout the later stages of their careers. It’ll be really fun to watch them — we’ll talk a little bit more about the Olympics later in the show.

Caitlin: WNBA league leadership and the Players Association agreed to a free agency moratorium. We will definitely get into that and what it means — we’ve committed to sharing updates on that week over week as it progresses.

Despite the player moratorium, expansion team Toronto Tempo continued to build out their coaching staff behind former New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello. Brondello had led the Liberty to championship games a few years in a row and was let go at the end of last season, so it’ll be interesting to see how she does with an expansion team.

Unrivaled viewership in week one of competition was down from the inaugural season. Not all good news here at Raising the Game. But generally speaking, all we have to say is: go watch Unrivaled.

Athletes Unlimited Basketball League announced players involved and prepped for league kickoff on February 1st.

Alex: I had no idea this league even existed.

Caitlin: Yeah, this is like another alternative for players to play in the offseason and not go overseas. It’s a very different format — individual scoring system plus a team scoring system, so it varies from Unrivaled. Really cool, something worth looking into.

Alex: Next up — Montréal Victoire snapped the Ottawa Charge’s six-game win streak in PWHL action. They started the week snapping that win streak, and then ended the week in front of a 17,000-plus crowd during their Takeover Tour — where the PWHL plays something like 16 games in 11 different cities that aren’t home cities of any of these teams. They lost to the New York Sirens, but by the end of the game, the Washington D.C. fans were chanting “We want a team!”

Give them a team. Just do it.

Caitlin: Team USA Women’s Hockey had media day as they prepare to kick off their gold medal campaign on February 5th against Czechia.

Alex: Big movement in NWSL signings: Lindsey Heaps to Denver Summit, Sam Coffey to Manchester City, Ludmila to San Diego Wave. We’re going to talk about some of these in a bit.

Rose Lavelle named 2025 U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year, Lilly Reale named Young Player of the Year.

Netflix plans to make a movie about the famed ‘99ers, casting Emily Bader as Mia Hamm. Emily Bader recently starred in People We Meet on Vacation on Netflix — so for you romance novel fans out there, maybe you’ve seen that.

Australian Open served up first-round matches this past weekend with American players like Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, and Amanda Anisimova all beginning their runs at the title.

A star-studded investor group for the new Women’s Tomorrow Golf League includes Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, and Mia Hamm.

And NCAA Division I representatives voted to add women’s flag football to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program.

Caitlin: Lots of headlines this past week. They were coming from all different directions — we’ve got Netflix with a deal for the ‘99ers movie, the Australian Open, so many things. And Mia Hamm appeared twice on my call sheet this week.

Alex: Mia Hamm twice on the front page of the call sheet. That’s a good week.

NWSL Deep Dive: The Trinity Rodman Rule and the High Impact Player Controversy

Caitlin: All right, let’s dig into our deep dive. We’ll keep it on soccer — or football, depending on where you live in the world. We’ll probably refer to it as soccer because we grew up in America, but maybe we’ll use them interchangeably. We’re going to talk about the NWSL — the National Women’s Soccer League — which I think is starting its 14th or 15th season.

We came to you a couple weeks back talking about the Trinity Rodman contract saga, and how in response to denying a lucrative contract deal with one of the top stars from the U.S. Women’s National Team, who currently or was playing for the Washington Spirit and is now a free agent, the NWSL denied that contract and came up with this high impact player rule that’s now being referred to as the Rodman Rule. We wanted to dig in a little and talk about how the NWSL offseason is shaping up, and what that might signal for the league.

I found a really awesome op-ed by Meg Linehan, one of my favorite women’s soccer writers at The Athletic. She really framed it well — talking about how the league claimed to be fighting to keep Trinity, but through her investigation, it seems like they’re really fighting with themselves. And we’ve highlighted this before, but there’s a little bit of that chicken-and-egg dynamic here: is it the player that’s helping to generate the revenue, or do we need the broadcast deals and the revenue to help keep the player?

Alex: And I think what makes it complicated is that this is a global game.

Caitlin: Exactly. I think in response to what felt like a bit of an exodus of national team stars — last year you had Naomi Girma, Alyssa Thompson — and now we just saw Sam Coffey leaving. The question becomes whether the NWSL is structured in a way to keep top talent.

What I was thinking about as I was prepping: you’re seeing a similar thing playing out in the NWSL as in the WNBA — around salaries, negotiations, all of that. Except the NWSL has this little thing called other leagues, like the WSL, that are very well established. These players can literally say, “Okay, bye, I’ll go somewhere else.” Sam Coffey leaving is an example. But then we did see Lindsey Heaps come back, which is interesting — there is a little balance there.

I also listened to an interview that one of the co-owners of Gotham FC did on Bloomberg — Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, who is the majority owner. They were asking her about what she thought of all this, and she basically said what you just said. And we heard a similar thing from the new president of soccer operations for the Spirit when we talked about the Rodman situation a few weeks back. This is a global game — it’s actually a great signal for women’s soccer. There was a time five, six, seven years ago where you wouldn’t see players wanting to come and play here. But we’ve seen tremendous growth in programs and funding and investment in women’s soccer outside the states.

Alex: So she was saying it’s a good thing — it forces owners to compete against clubs internationally, not just within the league.

Caitlin: Right. And I really liked something she said: “We wake up every day focused on one question — why would a player want to come play for our club?” Trinity Rodman was quoted as saying she’d be kicking herself if she didn’t take a chance to play overseas. Lindsey Heaps coming back — she actually did two separate stints overseas, so she’s kind of done that. It’s not always just about the money. It’s about the opportunity — different coaching, different resources.

So just to cap off that section: the NWSL Players Association has demanded an immediate rescission of the High Impact Player Rule. Their position is that this rule — which allows teams a million dollars on top of their salary cap to retain players who fit certain criteria — fundamentally changes salary structure, and therefore should be collectively bargained. They also argue that only a very small percentage of NWSL players qualify, making it inequitable.

Alex: It’s tough, because the league was trying to do something, but the union has to fight for all of their players, not just a couple of them.

Caitlin: And it’s very clear that the league is trying to position it as “this has nothing to do with Trinity” — but your timing’s a little funny. You veto the deal and then turn around two weeks later and immediately vote to ratify this rule. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s about Trinity.

NWSL Offseason Moves: Key Signings, Departures, and Roster Changes

Caitlin: All right, let’s switch gears and talk about some of the movement around these teams from an offseason perspective.

We’ve already mentioned Sam Coffey leaving the Portland Thorns, where she’s been for many years as a midfield stalwart — one of my favorite players to watch. She’s signed with Manchester City and heading overseas to the WSL.

Coming back: Lindsey Heaps is a Colorado girl, getting to go home. I watched a tearjerker of a video where they surprised her parents with the news that she’d signed — that was amazing.

We’ve got expansion teams — Denver Summit, which just signed Heaps, and Boston Legacy, which brings a team back to the Boston area. They’ve had teams before in previous iterations of the league.

Angel City FC seems to be restructuring. They had some high-profile retirements — Christen Press from the U.S. Women’s National Team, and Ali Riley from the New Zealand Women’s National Team. So they’re looking to rebuild.

Some key re-signings: Chicago Stars FC re-signed former U.S. Women’s National Team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, and also Riley Tiernan.

Alex: And Denver had a big signing beyond Lindsey Heaps too.

Caitlin: Yes — they signed Ayo Oke, a former UCLA Bruin who had gone after college to play at Pachuca in Mexico. She signed the largest inter-league transfer fee the NWSL has seen, incoming from Pachuca.

We already mentioned Ludmila — Brazilian star signing with the San Diego Wave. I don’t really know what the Wave are doing.

Alex: Yeah, they’ve been all over the place a little bit.

Caitlin: And then Kailen Sheridan — longtime goalkeeper for the Wave, Canadian international, starting goalkeeper — has signed with the North Carolina Courage. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes.

Additions to Angel City: we mentioned Emily Sams who plays for the national team, as well as Ary Borges, who’s another Brazilian international.

And then the final one that’s a big mention — coming from the Wave to defending champions Gotham FC: Savannah McCaskill, another stalwart midfielder who’s really fun to watch.

Alex: Do you think they’re trying to spend a little more money upfront — just really swing in that inaugural season, try to sign as much talent as they can to drive ticket sales and show they’re serious? And how does that play out when you get to filling out the rest of the team with whatever’s left over?

Caitlin: That’s a great question. And it lends itself to think they’re trying to pull in names people recognize, that are going to draw fans, create brand recognition — different than our expansion teams from last season. Last season you had Bay FC, and I think Brandi Chastain of the ‘99ers might be backing them in some way — but you didn’t really hear a ton about it. So while it’s interesting to think they’re putting money behind these players, it still remains to be seen if they can actually win.

The San Diego Wave were our team in this league a couple years ago when we latched onto them, and that was an expansion team. They were successful right out of the gate, which was really fun.

Alex: And then to your second point about filling out the roster — you need a really good GM for that. There’s a ton of talent coming out of college, free agents from other clubs, and obviously the international market. I think from what I saw, Curt Johnson is the GM at Denver, and from what I understand he’s been around the game — he probably knows what he’s doing.

NWSL Facility Investments and Expansion Team Infrastructure

Caitlin: Well, let’s use that as a transition to talk about some of these investments. I started doing some digging into how these teams are being supported from a facilities perspective.

If you’ve been around the NWSL, you may know that the Kansas City Current — who won the NWSL Shield last year as regular season champions — have the first ever fully dedicated sporting facility, stadium, and training complex for a women’s professional team. Most famously, Brittany Mahomes is one of the primary investors.

But the Denver Summit — and actually these three examples I’m going to give are three really unique ways these teams have approached funding and partnering with their communities. Denver Summit is building a multi-acre training facility with multiple fields and a 20,000-square-foot training building. On that property, they’re going to build a 12,000-seat temporary stadium for the 2026 and 2027 seasons. This is in the Centennial neighborhood, in the Cherry Creek School District. What’s really interesting is they’re partnering with that school district — the school district will have access to the fields, and when the temporary stadium is no longer needed, they’ll knock it down to 4,000 seats for school district use. Their 14,500-seat permanent stadium is being built just south of downtown Denver, trying to create a little corridor with Mile High Stadium and Ball Arena.

Alex: And then a different example — the Portland Thorns are in the process of building a $150 million state-of-the-art training facility that will be shared with WNBA expansion team Portland Fire. On an old Nike property that’s not being used for what it was before. That’ll be available starting this year for both teams.

Caitlin: And the third one: Chicago Stars FC is working on a standalone training facility with two training pitches, a goalkeeper-specific pitch, and a 45,000-square-foot training building slated to open in 2027. What’s interesting about the Stars is they frankly haven’t had a ton of success in recent years, but clearly there’s investment happening. They do boast Mallory Swanson, one of the triple espresso from the 2024 Olympics, so there’s some star power there.

So overall, it’s really cool to see these facilities coming up. This is stuff I would have never imagined having as a female athlete — still kind of wild to even imagine it now.

One other thing I wanted to mention on the expansion front: we’ve talked about Boston and Denver joining, but slated to join in 2028 is a team in Atlanta — my home city. This is reportedly being done behind a record $165 million expansion fee, backed by Arthur Blank’s ownership group. Arthur Blank also owns the Falcons and Atlanta United, and they’re planning to play in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is huge.

NWSL Expansion: Minnesota Aurora FC and the Future Pipeline

Alex: I think we’re seeing institutional investors looking at this and saying these are desirable, they’re profitable, we need to get in now. We talked about this last week with LOVB and how they have a franchise in San Antonio via the Spurs ownership group.

And there are other markets being considered for NWSL expansion — on the short list we have two for Ohio: Columbus and Cincinnati. I have coworkers near Columbus who have season tickets to the Columbus Crew — it’s a great soccer state. And bids are being made for our very own Minnesota. There’s the Aurora FC, and there’s a brand new stadium that the Loons play in.

Caitlin: Allianz Field — yeah.

Alex: We have a sister team! That would be amazing. That would probably be our first true professional season ticket.

Caitlin: A hundred percent. That probably won’t happen before 2028 at the earliest, if not after that. But stay tuned.

US Women’s National Team and 2027 Women’s World Cup Qualifying

Caitlin: All right, so we’ve got the Women’s World Cup coming up next year, and the year after that, the Olympics in LA. I’m going to nerd out here for a bit. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team is my favorite team of all time. I still remember watching the ‘99ers, the hype, the excitement, all of it. And so when I tell you I’m going to nerd out — just be ready.

Alex: We’ve got the Women’s World Cup in 2027 in Brazil, and then the Olympics in 2028.

Caitlin: Oftentimes there are linkages between the two qualifying processes so you’re not overplaying these teams. And it’s going to create a lot of fun, especially in the back half of 2026, for international women’s soccer.

There are six confederations around the world — one for each continent, not counting Antarctica if you want to be simplistic about it. There are key qualifying moments this year. The UEFA (European) league, the Asian league, and the African league all start qualifying in March of this year. Asia and Africa will have their qualifying teams done by the end of March. UEFA does a preliminary round of qualifiers with more to come later in the year.

Final tournaments: for Europe and North America — CONCACAF — that’ll be Canada, Mexico, and the United States. That begins at the end of 2026, Q4 timeframe.

Alex: That was genuinely hard for you to think about outside your work hat.

Caitlin: It really was. CONMEBOL — that’s South America and parts of Central America — and OCEANIA will have their qualifiers done by June for CONMEBOL and April for OCEANIA. Each confederation gets a different number of qualifying spots. Oceania only gets one; Europe gets eleven. And as of right now, the only team that has qualified is Brazil, because they automatically qualify as the host nation.

Alex: Probably would have qualified anyway.

Caitlin: Yeah, probably. This is going to be really interesting to watch as these different professional leagues progress through their seasons, because you’ll see a lot more consideration for injury management, how teams think about the international schedule, and roster construction.

While we watched the USWNT last year — we actually got to watch them play here in town — Emma Hayes was really working on figuring out the pieces she had available, plugging in a lot of youth. There was a very significant number of players getting first-time caps. A lot of the players we were used to seeing in the Olympics and the last World Cup weren’t in the rotation for different reasons. Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson were both out on maternity leave. Rose Lavelle had been dealing with some injuries, and Trinity Rodman is another example.

Alex: The other thing is just the logistics this year — you have the NWSL season, all these qualifiers, a break for the Men’s World Cup because they’re using all the stadiums, and then more qualifiers. I don’t know if the NWSL has had to deal with this much complexity before. What your roster is going to look like from week to week is a real puzzle.

Caitlin: Actually, the NWSL schedule came out last week for the 2026 season, and noticeably absent was any games in June. The Men’s World Cup is being played here in the states, so they’re taking up some of the stadium space and accessibility concerns are there too.

2027 Women’s World Cup Contenders: Spain, USA, England, and Brazil

Caitlin: I do want to finish by talking about some top contenders and potential spoilers. This is early days, folks.

Coming in first on every list — Spain. The current number one team in the world, and the reigning Women’s World Cup champion. If you’ve never watched the Spanish national team play, it’s just art. So technical, so beautiful. A real treat to watch those players orchestrate together.

The U.S. national team is going to be seeking major redemption from the last World Cup. Their earliest exit ever — a round of 16 shootout loss to Sweden — and they didn’t play great in the group stages either. But I think they’re back. Emma Hayes’s tenth game as manager for the USWNT resulted in a gold medal at the Olympics. She’s had some time under her belt, she’s one of the premier coaches in the world right now, and I’m really excited to see how she shapes this squad as things get more real.

Second on my list is England. England has been foot on the gas for the last couple of years. Lots of recognizable names in women’s professional soccer. They’re the reigning 2025 European champions — they beat Spain in that tournament — and they lost to Spain in the last Women’s World Cup final. So they are definitely out for the top title.

And my fourth top contender is Brazil. Host nation, you’ve got to give them a little something. They’re sixth in the world right now. They recently got a new manager — Arthur Elias — replacing Pia Sundhage, who had coached them through the last couple of tournaments. And they recently beat the U.S. Women’s National Team in a friendly late last year. So they’re returning to form after a few years of inconsistency.

Alex: I was wondering about Sweden — they’ve been up there for the last little bit.

Caitlin: Sweden is always around. They’re on my spoilers list.

2027 Women’s World Cup Spoilers: Sweden, Germany, Colombia, Japan, and More

Caitlin: These teams are spoilers not in the sense that they’re going to necessarily win the whole thing — though they could. They’re spoilers because they often upset the teams that should win. Sweden beat the U.S. in the last World Cup. They lose to Spain, but then they beat someone else who was supposed to be in. You just would not want them on your side of the bracket.

Germany — right now they’re the third-ranked team in the world. Besides the U.S. and Spain, they’re the only other nation with multiple World Cup championships: back-to-back in 2003 and 2007. They haven’t been at that level since, but they’re coming on. They’re led by goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, who plays for Gotham FC in the NWSL and just won a championship with them. She’s a phenomenal goalkeeper.

Colombia — ranked 20th in the world. What’s cool about Colombia is they play a very loose and free style. They have Linda Caicedo, who is quite possibly the fastest player I’ve ever seen. They consistently bother whoever they’re playing against, and they have the potential to spoil.

Alex: In football, if you can counter-attack, get one goal, and then just hunker down — any team can beat anybody.

Caitlin: Exactly. Nigeria — 37th in the world, but the only African team to have qualified for all nine Women’s World Cups. They have experience and athleticism; they can be a disruptor.

Sweden, as I mentioned. France — seventh in the world — riding some momentum, growing since the late 2010s.

And then I had to throw in Japan. Japan has played spoiler for the United States before — they famously beat the U.S. for the 2011 title; the U.S. turned around and thrashed them in 2015. But Japan, like Spain, is so technical and disciplined. I think they set a record in the last World Cup in group play — they beat Spain 4–0. With less than 30% of the possession. They literally sat back, picked their moments, and when they picked them, they converted.

Alex: That is just incredible discipline.

Athletes to Watch for the 2027 Women’s World Cup

Caitlin: We’ve also got a few athletes to watch. Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith for Team USA — we’ll be paying attention to see if they’re back in the mix by World Cup time next year, or still working back from maternity leave. They are phenomenal players, but there’s a lot of really good youth talent. They’ll have to push hard to earn those spots back.

Aitana Bonmatí, Alexia Putellas, and Mariona Caldentey from Spain. These three women consistently win the Ballon d’Or and Golden Boot. Aitana Bonmatí just won for 2025; I think Alexia Putellas won for 2024. Both Bonmatí and Putellas play for Barcelona. Caldentey plays for Arsenal. Just crafty, technically gifted, incredibly smart.

Moving to a more NWSL-familiar name — Temwa Chawinga. She plays for Malawi, so we’ll see if they qualify in the African Cup of Nations in March. Golden Boot and League MVP in the last two NWSL seasons, and a huge part of the KC Current’s run to the Shield this past season.

Barbara Banda, who plays for Zambia — she’s on the Orlando Pride and has been a consistent top scorer.

Sam Kerr — striking phenom from Australia, returning from ACL surgery. She came back this fall, has looked on form, but you’re always watching to see how she holds up.

Alessia Russo and Leah Williamson from England — always players to watch.

And Linda Caicedo and Mayra Ramírez from Colombia — just always got to have your eyes on them.

Alex: So what chance do you give the U.S. Women’s National Team?

USWNT: Goalkeeper Question, the Triple Espresso, and World Cup Odds

Alex: At least it’s not like the men’s team where we have to ask if they’re even going to qualify. We’re pretty sure the U.S. women will qualify. So, what are their chances?

There are a couple of question marks, and I think we’ll learn more over the course of the year. Number one — and I have a strong bias here — who is the number one goalkeeper? Alyssa Naeher retired last year. She’s been back there forever and is one of the best keepers in USWNT history. That position anchors your entire team. We certainly have Casey Murphy, we have players like Jane Campbell who have been in the rotation — it’s just a matter of who’s going to step up and fill that void.

Caitlin: So that’ll be interesting to watch. The other thing I’m going to be watching for is the return of the triple espresso. We had this dynamic scoring trio of Swanson, Smith, and Rodman in the Olympics when they won gold. With Rodman’s uncertainty and injury history, and Wilson and Swanson coming off maternity leaves — what’s going to happen up top? When we were prepping to watch the Olympics, the question was: how do you defend that? Those are the top three strikers in the world and putting them together as a unit is really tough.

And then there’s the veteran leadership question. You had some key retirements over the course of last year. You still have Lindsey Heaps, Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett — they’re really going to help anchor the spine of that formation. But it’ll be interesting to see how the youth comes in.

I think their chances are pretty good, but I need more information. And I think we just went through a rundown of teams that are genuinely getting better. The U.S. has to continually push to be the best. It’s not going to feel like the foregone conclusion of previous World Cups — they barely made it out of the group stage in the last one.

Alex: The other thought I had: moving on toward the 2028 Olympics, the roster goes from 23 in the World Cup to 18 in the Olympics. Are there any veterans who, by 2028, might not be the person for that Olympic roster given the roster has to shrink?

Caitlin: I mean, very famously Abby Wambach came off the bench in her last Olympics. I think some of those veterans may retire before 2028, but if you’re in the flow right now, you’re probably pushing through this next cycle. The question becomes — can you be comfortable with your role changing? Can you really be a team player and support the team however you can? Abby Wambach did a phenomenal job of that. And go read Wolfpack — that whole story is just phenomenal leadership. She knew what her job was and let go of whatever she needed to. Great book.

2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics: Team USA Preview

Caitlin: All right, do we want to look at our Olympics countdown?

Alex: Let’s do it.

Caitlin: We’re just over two weeks out. Key qualifying events occurred over this past weekend. Most teams will be announced between now and the last week of January.

Alpine skiing: Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn, Paula Moltzan, and Nina O’Brien. Shiffrin is coming off what I think is her seventh World Cup win in this last qualifying tournament. Vonn’s returning for her fifth Olympics — she had retired, she had a gnarly broken leg or something, and she’s back. That’s really cool to see.

Ice hockey: six Badgers, four of whom are current NCAA players, including Layla Edwards. What is in the water at the recruiting office in Madison right now? Six Badgers, and I think their college team is 37 and 1 or something.

Alex: They’re number one in the nation right now.

Caitlin: I was just talking to a friend at work this week, a fellow Badger alum, and he was like, “Well, thank God we have the women’s hockey team for some success in sports.” I do want to point out — Layla Edwards will be the first Black woman representing Team USA in ice hockey. She’s currently a collegiate athlete.

Figure skating: we gushed last week about Amber Glenn. We also have Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito. From what I’m reading, this is going to be one of the strongest slates of U.S. women in figure skating in quite a while.

Ice Dance: Madison Chock and Evan Bates. So different from the individual events — you have the singles where people do short programs and long programs, and then ice dance where you pair two skaters together. I’ve watched Madison Chock and Evan Bates before — the artistry and athleticism, the balance of those things, is awesome.

Snowboarding: Chloe Kim chasing a third consecutive halfpipe gold. She does have a recent injury though — she tore her labrum in her shoulder on a fall. I was reading an interview with her about it and she was just like, “Oh no, I’ll be fine.” These people are built completely differently mentally. But I do worry about whether that’s going to limit her rotation at all.

Alex: Fill her up with ibuprofen and she’ll be fine.

Caitlin: Moving on to speed skating — Erin Jackson, in her third Olympics, defending a 500-meter gold medal. Another Black woman representing Team USA on the ice. She’s dealt with a series of injuries and health issues that have made it really hard to stay in form, but she’s qualified again. I think she took silver in the 1,000-meter at the last Olympics too, so she’s going to be looking to move up on the podium for that event as well.

Cross-country skiing: Jessie Diggins, heading to her fourth Olympics, and a Minnesota native!

Alex: Yes!

Caitlin: And she’s actually retiring after the Olympics, I believe. So I think no matter what happens, it’s just kind of a cool victory lap — one last Olympics before she goes out. We’ll be watching.

Opening ceremony is February 6th, I believe, and Team USA actually drops the puck against Czechia on the 5th, so you can tune in a little early for some Team USA hockey.

WNBA CBA: Free Agency Moratorium and Labor Standoff

Caitlin: We’re going to round things out today with a quick update on the WNBA situation — specifically the moratorium agreement.

On Monday, January 12th, Reuters reported that the league and the union had agreed to a moratorium on league business, specifically free agency. Free agency for players was supposed to start as far as reach-outs go between teams and players on the 11th of January. The league proposed a moratorium; the Players Association agreed. The main reason they would agree: they’re literally negotiating terms of contracts right now with significant changes anticipated, so it doesn’t make a ton of sense for players to be signing contracts when you might not get the deal you’d want.

Alex: The CBA officially expired at midnight on January 9th. We are now in a period of “status quo” — the old CBA terms are still what we’re operating under, so league work can continue. But because of the uncertainty specifically around free agency terms, they agreed to this moratorium.

Caitlin: Right. And what I don’t know is how this plays into expansion drafts, because the league can continue to do business under the status quo period — but then they did this moratorium. You’ve got two teams that need expansion drafts done, a college draft coming in April, and it’s all really up in the air right now.

The other thing about status quo: either side could move to a work stoppage at any time. And some of the signs out there are indicating that the players are prepared to do that.

Alex: There have been some universities and fitness centers that have come out and said, “Hey, WNBA players, you have a home here if the league shuts you out of your training facilities.” So players would be able to continue to train and get treatment even if the league decides to shut things down — or if the players decide to strike.

Caitlin: There were also some bold statements made by Natasha Cloud, a guard for the New York Liberty who’s playing on the Phantom in Unrivaled right now, on a podcast where she basically said Unrivaled is prepared to keep the party going. And I initially heard that and was like, “Yeah, they could totally do that!” And then you think about it — that would maybe be good for the players in the short term. But as we talked about earlier, Unrivaled, Athletes Unlimited, these other options that exist stateside for basketball players in lieu of the WNBA just are not robust enough to really sustain that long-term.

Alex: It’s not going to work as a genuine substitute — you can’t replicate the full WNBA schedule out of a smaller venue in one city.

Caitlin: Right. And speaking of how many players this affects — I looked at this list, and according to Spotrac, there are over 100 players in the WNBA listed as free agents right now. Different types — unrestricted, restricted, and more — but these are some of the names that were on that list: Kelsey Mitchell from the Indiana Fever, Sabrina Ionescu from the New York Liberty, Arike Ogunbowale, Alyssa Thomas, Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, Napheesa Collier, Tina Charles, Brittney Griner. Like, basically every player you think of when you think WNBA is a free agent right now.

Alex: Unless you signed a rookie contract in the last two or three years.

Caitlin: It’ll be interesting to see how this continues to develop. The Players Association is certainly frustrated. They continue to say the league is not negotiating in good faith. The league continues to say they are. It seems to be what they call an impasse.

What to Watch: USWNT vs. Paraguay, PWHL, Unrivaled, and NCAA Basketball

Caitlin: All right, good update there. Let’s switch over to what to watch.

Starting off: U.S. Women’s National Team plays an international friendly on Saturday, July 24th versus Paraguay. 4:30 p.m. Central in Carson, California. Featuring the return of Trinity Rodman, who didn’t play most of the year last year due to a lingering back injury and MCL sprain. You can find it on TNT, TruTV, HBO Max, and Peacock.

Alex: I’m very curious to see how much she plays. Do you think she’ll start, or come in off the bench?

Caitlin: I don’t know. The Washington Spirit made the NWSL Championship against Gotham and she was available — I think she came on for a little bit. And then she didn’t play in the semifinal even though she was available. So it’s been a few months. It’s possible she’s back to full form, but I will be watching for whether she starts, whether she’s on limited minutes. And there’s also a ton of youth call-ups again — new names trying to solidify their spots on this team.

Next up: PWHL, and we’re going to talk Minnesota again. We’re playing New York — we’re number three, they’re number two — on Sunday. This is a battle for second place. Also, the day this podcast releases, there’s going to be a game between the number-three Minnesota Frost and number-four Montréal Victoire. Depending on who wins that game, it’ll set the table for that Sunday matchup. Go Frost!

Unrivaled — like we said, any team can win on any given day with how the rules work in that league. A full slate of games, four days in a row, Friday through Monday on TruTV in the evenings.

Alex: Any game — I promise we’re not being paid by them.

Caitlin: It’s actually really fun to watch. We’re happy when it’s Thursday because it means tomorrow we get to watch.

LOVB Texas Showdown: LOVB Houston versus LOVB Austin on Saturday night, 6:30 p.m. Central on Victory+. LOVB Houston is 0–2, LOVB Austin is 2–1. So Austin’s doing well, but you have that interstate matchup and it’s always going to be fun.

Next up: Australian Open. Around the time we recorded this, it’s still in round one. Coco Gauff won her first round and is moving on. She plays Olga Danilovic of Serbia at some point this week — probably closer to the weekend once they work out the court assignments.

Moving on to college — three ranked college hockey matchups: number 12 Colgate versus number 6 Quinnipiac, number 10 Cornell versus number 9 Princeton, and number 8 UMD Duluth versus number 14 Minnesota State. In-state rivalry again. You can find these on a mix of ESPN+ or Big Ten Network.

Basketball: number 14 Ohio State (16–2) at number 11 Iowa (15–2), Sunday at 1 p.m. on Peacock. Crazy that Ohio State has two losses and they’re still number 14 — I think UConn was 18 or 19 and zero at the time.

Alex: Again — Geno.

Caitlin: Number 5 Vanderbilt (18–0) versus number 2 South Carolina (19–1), Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN. And an unranked border battle: UW-Madison (12–7) versus University of Minnesota (12–6) at 2 p.m. on Big Ten+.

Alex: I won’t pretend like I went to the U.

Caitlin: You shouldn’t. But you did go to both.

Alex: I did go to both. All right, that is what I have for what to watch — we’re going to wrap it up here and get into winners and losers.

Winners and Losers: Denver Summit and the WNBA/NWSL Labor Battles

Caitlin: I think for me, winners — there’s so much going on, there’s no shortage — but I think bringing women’s professional soccer to Colorado is a big win. That’s a great market. They’re making some good moves — we talked about the facilities, the signing of Heaps and Ayo Oke. That’s a city that is passionate about its sports teams and I’m excited to see how they do.

Alex: Yeah, my winner was Denver Summit. Oh my God. They got Lindsey Heaps to come back home — from where she was at OL Lyonnes. You have this big-time player playing at a great team in France and you got them to come back. That’s a huge win.

Caitlin: From a losers perspective — I feel like we say this every week — but I want to go back to the WNBA. It’s one thing if the players can continue to play, and I think they just keep their edge and continue to compete. But from a fan base perspective, I’m already starting to get the sense that some of the momentum we talked about in past episodes is slowing down. It’s not gone, but they’ve got to be careful here. They’re starting to run out the clock on what’s appropriate and what the fan base is willing to tolerate. That feels like a loss to me.

Alex: And my loser is the NWSL — losing Sam Coffey to Manchester City and then the whole grievance and rescission demand around the High Impact Player Rule. It’s not a huge individual loss, but we’re talking about WNBA momentum, NWSL momentum — you just don’t want to lose anything good that’s going on right now. It’s a little bit of a mess.

Caitlin: Yeah, and as we think about it — it’s a similar battle, but across two leagues. Players wanting to be valued for what they think they’re worth, which is great. But the positions are slightly different. The WNBA doesn’t have as much outside market competition, so the league actually has a bit of an advantage — like, where else are you going to go that has the same level? The NWSL is different, where it’s like, well, I’ll just leave for the WSL. And then the business gets hurt.

It’s been really fun deep-diving into these and juxtaposing the different labor battles. I think my goal for next week is to have a loser that is not the NWSL or related to the WNBA.

Alex: Let’s make it a challenge. All right.

Outro

Caitlin: Well, thanks for tuning in today. We appreciate you being here. Catch us every week — we’re doing this every week. This is our first official episode going out to Spotify and YouTube.

Alex: Where can you find us?

Caitlin: Spotify, YouTube, and I think we’ll be on Apple Podcasts as well. Instagram at RTG_pod. Same on Threads, same on YouTube. And that’s what we’re doing for socials right now.

Alex: Catch us there.

Caitlin: See you next time.

Alex: Until next week.

Both: Bye!