Carli Lloyd
July 16, 1982 — Delran Township, New Jersey
Carli Lloyd is an American former professional soccer player whose relentless work ethic and big-game instincts made her one of the most decorated athletes in U.S. women's soccer history, including two World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, and a historic hat-trick in the 2015 World Cup final.
Driven from Delran
Born on July 16, 1982 in Delran Township, New Jersey, Lloyd started playing soccer at age five and attended the opening match of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup as a teenager — an experience that set the course of her life. She starred at Delran High School, earning two Parade All-American honours, then became the first Rutgers athlete ever named First-Team All-Big East for four consecutive years. She graduated as the school's all-time leader in points (117) and goals (50), earning a degree in Exercise Science and Sport Studies. Her relentless drive was forged early: after a difficult relationship with her family in her mid-twenties, she hired a personal trainer and began an obsessive regimen that would define her career — training six days a week, practising free kicks hundreds of times at dawn.
Golden Goals at Back-to-Back Olympics
Lloyd's national team debut came in 2005, and she became the player the USWNT turned to in its biggest moments. In the gold medal match at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she scored the only goal in overtime to defeat Brazil and win gold — the first of back-to-back Olympic final winners she would score. Four years later at the 2012 London Olympics, Lloyd scored both U.S. goals in a 2–1 victory over Japan, becoming the only player of any gender in Olympic history to score the winning goal in two separate Olympic finals. She is also the highest-scoring midfielder in U.S. women's national team history.
Did You Know?
In the 2015 Women's World Cup Final against Japan, Lloyd scored three goals in the first sixteen minutes — completing the fastest hat-trick in World Cup final history, men's or women's. Her third goal, a long-range strike from midfield just past halfway, is widely regarded as one of the greatest goals ever scored in a World Cup.
The 2015 World Cup Final
Lloyd reached the pinnacle of her sport on July 5, 2015, when the United States faced Japan in the Women's World Cup Final in Vancouver. She scored in the 3rd minute, added a second in the 5th, then struck from nearly 55 yards in the 16th — a half-volley that looped over the goalkeeper into the empty net. The hat-trick in sixteen minutes was unprecedented in World Cup final history. The U.S. won 5–2, and Lloyd was awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, the Silver Boot as second-leading scorer, and the Goal of the Tournament award. She was named FIFA Women's World Player of the Year for 2015.
Legacy and Later Career
Lloyd added a second World Cup title in 2019, a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and retired that October with 316 international caps — second all-time for the USWNT — and 134 international goals. She remains the highest-paid female soccer player of her era and was inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. Her memoir, When Nobody Was Watching, published in 2016, chronicles the disciplined, isolated path she charted to the top of her sport. She married golfer Brian Hollins in 2016, and in October 2024 the couple welcomed their first child.