During the early part of this century, as a girl growing up 40 miles west of London in the English town of Reading, Lucy Rushton had to squint to see any athletic dreams. The Lionesses, the women’s national soccer team, aren’t supported as robustly or followed as closely as their counterparts in the U.S. The paths to a career in sports were marked by roadblocks, not by fresh pavement.
“Women’s soccer in England is not what it is over here — certainly not 15 or 20 years ago,” Rushton said by phone Thursday. “It really wasn’t a thing.