Women's soccer was added to the Summer Olympics card in 1996, coinciding with the U.S. Women's National Team's emergence as a world power. The Americans claimed gold on home soil in Atlanta in that first Olympic tournament, bolstered by a starring performance from defender Carla Overbeck, who has been a Duke assistant coach since 1992. The USWNT has won the championship in four of the six Olympic tourneys that have been held, and joins Sweden and Brazil as the only countries to qualify every time since the sport joined the Games.
Ranked No. 1 in the world this summer, the U.