The US Olympic Soccer Team Celebrates Mothers

World-renowned soccer player Christie Rampone returns to the field for this summer’s 2012 Olympic Games. Christie is a mom of two girls, Rylie Cate (age 6) and Reece Elizabeth (age 2), whom she raises with her husband, Chris Rampone.  In a recent interview held with the Los Angeles Times, Christie affirms that her girls are now her number one priority. Christie and fellow team member and mom, Abby Wambach, have both insisted on having their children accompany them to London this summer; a necessity that the US Soccer division has been happy to accommodate. US Soccer embraces female athletes’ commitments to their children, and has paid all expenses of the children and their accompanying nannies for the past 16 years. Spokesperson for the US Soccer team, Neil Buethe, applauds the current strategy of encouraging athletes to bring their children to the Games. "U.S. Soccer considers this an important element to help those players with children."

Christie, the team’s captain, affirms that she would not have gone to London had US Soccer not supported her motherhood duties so strongly. Christie enunciates, "I was 100% OK with knowing that this was the next step in my life," she says. "If I couldn't come back I'd be disappointed, but we still would have been able to move on with our lives." Christie’s commitment to both her children and her career is an inspiration to us, and we look forward to cheering Christie on this August!

Visit Christie’s website here. 

Watch the US Women's soccer team play Korea DPR today at 12:15 p.m. ET

 Photo by Simon Bruty/SI