Ex-Cal Soccer Star Alex Morgan Featured in Glamour Magazine a Month Before Giving Birth

She sees silver lining in having the Olympic Games postponed

Former Cal soccer star Alex Morgan was hoping to be ready to play for the United States Women’s National Team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics just a few weeks after giving birth to her first child, according a lengthy story about her in Glamour magazine.

(The story is filled with photos and videos of a pregnant Morgan.)

Now she has longer to prepare for the Olympics, which have been postponed until the summer of 2021, but it’s possible she could have achieved her original goal.

She has done some extraordinary things, so the idea of playing at a world-class level soon after giving birth seemed within the realm of possibility, as the Glamour story noted: 

Morgan had made her World Cup debut at age 22, when she was the youngest player on the roster. She has scored more than 100 international goals, and has won two World Cups and one Olympic gold medal.

Then, in 2016, she and four others filed an official complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming gender discrimination by U.S. Soccer.

She was scheduled to give birth in April, and the Olympics were scheduled less than three months after that. The logistics of the preparation for the Olympics and the responsibilities of motherhood created pressure, according to the Glamour story.

Then the Olympis were canceled, and Morgan sees a silver lining. The pressures she was feeling about achieving her goal of playing in the 2020 Olympics have dissipated.

“There are a hundred things that have been going through my mind,” she told Glamour. “Now I have more time to deal, and I’ll have more time with my daughter without the endless questions. I can figure it out with a little more calm and a little more clarity. I have to look to the positives."

In other timely sports news, Opening Day of Major League Baseball will not take place as usual. Sports Illustrated provides a video on the subject: