The Paris Olympics was different things to different athletes. For USWNT forward Lynn Williams, it was rather a dramatic affair, it seems. She went from being a controversial snub to being a super substitute in coach Emma Hayes’s Olympic squad in a snap. Scoring in the group stage and coming off the bench in the final, the Gotham FC star went home with the gold medal, but a broken one. Well, things started to become dramatic for Williams way before she made it to the US Olympic squad. One of Coach Hayes’ decisions was a hard-to-swallow pill for Williams. 

As Lynn Williams puts it, she discovered Dunn’s selection as a forward through a text from the USWNT goalie Alyssa Naeher. Naeher asked Williams, how she felt about a defender getting called up as a forward. “ I’m a forward and that’s another person that I am now quote unquote competing against. And I basically just said back like obviously I’m jealous like that’s human nature. I’m jealous I wish I was in that position,” said Lynn Williams during her appearance on the Women’s Game podcast.

After that, the 31-year-old forward observed that coach Hayes’ snub had actually prompted her to compete and fight for the roster spot. While doing so, Williams also remarked she was happy for Dunn to have made the US team. “ I think that that’s the difference between being able to compete and being like I want that spot I know you want it so badly too but like I don’t need to hate you because we’re in the same position I just need to be my best Lynn,” the Gotham FC star added.

Williams later revealed how she finally came to terms with Dunn’s inclusion and her exclusion, shedding light on the subjective nature of soccer.

Lynn Williams says her prior snub and Hayes’ surprise move are testaments to soccer’s subjective nature

Anyhow, time decided to reward Lynn Williams for all the competitiveness, anxiety, and nervousness she had in the light of the Olympic team selection. She called coach Hayes and urged her not to write her off and promised to make the Olympic squad. Later, when the US striker Catarina Macario was injured, the British coach instantly summoned Wiliams to the US camp. And then on the big stage in Paris, the 31-year-old forgot all the woes of settling for a bronze in Tokyo and seized her first and USA’s fifth Olympic gold.