2024 Olympic Gold Medalists, Sophia Smith and Sam Coffey Press Conference

we're joined by Sophia Smith and Sam coffee gold medal winners for the United States Women's National Team um Annie we'll let you go ahead and start so I guess the obvious question is how does it feel to have a gold medal and is it in a place of honor in your houses or your apartments or wherever you are you want to say I'm not going to share where it is it's my prize baby um it feels really good I feel like it didn't really quite hit me at least until I got home and like unpacked it and was like w it's real and we're like home um but it feels good it feels good to go there and Come Away with exactly what you wanted to go there for yeah um I second that mine is somewhere in a compression sock so at least it's protected um but yeah like s said it's pretty surreal I think I look at it and I'm like whoa that really happened and um it's just a dream come true I think for both of us and to be able to share that now with this community is really special the gold medals for both of you I mean that's something you'll have forever right don't misplace of course but you got to go home and celebrate that with friends family people that help raised you and make you who you are talk us through with that day and Sleepy Hollow and just the reality of that setting there yeah we joke like I'm from this mythical little town that just is like this tiny little village of people and Sam's living in real life Gilmore so jealous yes um no I mean that was such an emotional day in the best way like being able to look out into the crowd and see people I grew up with my first coaches people that raised me friends family new faces was just so special and I love where I'm from and I'm really proud of it and so to bring um that back to them and to be able to to share that um experience with them was really really special so um I always will hold them in my heart but I was really glad to be able to stop there before getting back here over the last year the two of you have had you know different Journeys to get to this gold medal but I know that you know for you Sam you you're left off that team last year you're able to start all these games how does that feel to be able to lead this team back to the top and for you s I mean you know obviously the World Cup last year was a disappointment so to be able to get this team back on top again how does that feel for you as well yeah I guess for me personally like that was obviously a really challenging experience not going to the World Cup and having to navigate that adversity but I think ultimately it showed me a lot of what I was made of and um was I just learned so many lessons from that experience that I think I carried with me into this one um and I think it was ultimately just like a opportunity for me to just learn a lot about myself and to navigate really again challenging circumstances and ultimately just like decide to turn it into something that could be used for good and to to learn from it in any way I possibly could yeah I mean the World Cup was obviously not um sorry ideal um it just yeah we kind of have forgotten about that and put it in the past because I really don't believe that that was us um this team has so much potential and we're like we're a pretty young team the national team is and I think it's so exciting because I really do believe this Olympics was just a start for us and having Emma come in and just bring who she is and her energy and her just her vibe I think completely changed the whole vibe of the the team and put us into a good position to just do what already know how to do and what we've always known how to do but do it to the best of our ability and I think most importantly just enjoy it I'm going to Veer hard away from the Olympics and ask you guys what you thought of the collective bargaining agreement with the nwl players union I mean I think it's historic I think players are finally getting what they deserve and thank you to the PA for all the work that they do the player Representatives Meg Burke Kelsey Davis I mean there's a million other names you can mention I think it's such a cool moment for our league and I think it's exciting as young players in this league as well um to have this moment and celebrate it but to also know like we have so much more we're still fighting for I think there's still so many steps to go and and um strides we can make and so we'll celebrate this and obviously how far we've come but also continue to just fight for the future that we know we deserve yeah Sam had it um I'm curious in in eliminating the draft had there not been a draft when you guys came out would you have like reconsidered like maybe going pro earlier uh sorry I don't understand your question so they eliminated the the draft right if had you had the opportunity to you know Skip college would you have done that um I feel like it's a different time now I personally wouldn't have I mean I wouldn't trade my Collegiate Experience for anything like I know sof was in a different boat and leaving early as well but um I think it does pose a different opportunity for players nowadays um and again like every player is in a different boat I think like the Collegiate Experience is a really special one and one that um just did a lot for me but again every player is is different I think it does offer the opportunity for players to leave earlier without kind of the hoops and ladders of it all yeah I would agree I think it does just like Sam said offer a new opportunity but I loved my two years at Stanford I feel like you learn a lot about yourself you develop not only as a player but as a person in college um it gives you real life experiences it makes you go away from home and challenge yourself so I do still think college is very important um education aside just life experiences I I think it's important but I do think there will be a a more amount of players going pro earlier um and that's also good because the talent is there for sure but I think it's just knowing yourself and knowing what route is best for you at the end of the day like you can get here going any different route it's just what's what's best for you and what you feel like you need then Sam S what was it like walking out um you know as the first time Olympians and then second part of that question is standing on the podium with your gold medals together how how much more special was that especially with family and loved ones in the crowd as well it was so special I think Sam and I both had our families there the whole time and that really makes the experience that much better because you're doing something that you I mean I assume we've all dreamed of doing since we were really little so to be able to do that and to do it with our family and our parents who have made so many sacrifices and just been there every step of the way to be able to do that and share that moment with them I know for me was really special and it wouldn't have been the same without my family there so yeah it meant it meant a lot to have them there and to do it with Sam to and to come back here and do it together I just feel like it's always nice to have someone who knows the experience and went through it with you yeah IO everything so said yeah I think another special part was you guys are both focal points of the team so obviously you're starting at the nine and Sam you're at the six and you guys were First Choice lineups every time did that make it even more special just the part that you guys played yeah I mean I think anytime you can play a role in helping the team win like that's why we both play that's what we both want to do for the national team for this team like we want to win games we want to be at our best and I think anytime you know your name is called upon to do that and the pieces are there and we're clicking and we're having fun with it like I think everybody saw we were um you can't ask for anym and again to come out on top at the end of it all is what we what we work for and what we play for yeah and then the supporters and the fans are going to be really loud for for both you on Friday um what will that welcome back be like especially a little heavier with gold I mean yeah to be able to bring a gold medal back to this community and share it with um all of our supporters I think is going to be so special I am personally looking forward to it a lot I think we both are just ready to be home and um obviously you know we got to get business done on Friday that's the that's the main focus that's our main goal but to be able to have a celebration and be able to share it with this community just means so much yeah and Sam final question for me it would it would be remiss if I didn't ask did you eventually get that uh special edition squish mellow no I had a family friend send me one that was a beat though and they stitched a gold medal on it I think I posted on my story and um they wrote a card saying way to beat everybody so that's currently my my favorite one in my collection right now C I didn't get one I'll I'll tell them I'll tell them to send you up weird they don't have my address weird weird I didn't go in the world now now some athletes when they're on the podium with the medal it's that's their moment or it's the anthem's playing or it's the plane ride home I mean you probably had a few moments in that time but just to really be like wow me from Little s little Sam dreamed this moment we did it we want to do it again right I mean how does that hunger continue I know it it does but you've reached that mountain toop now so what the next Vision to get another one right yeah after after the game Emily saw it was like well we can only Emma like Emma started too she's like you can only go down from here joking obviously but it was pretty funny like that was to for Emma to start on such a high high um but I think for us like this sport is always there's always something more there's always something next um we've like trained our brains to kind of be goldfish and you celebrate a win but then it's the next thing we have another World Cup coming up in a few years so there's always something to look forward to and I think that's the beauty of this sport too is there's always something to work for there's always something to be excited about and I think for us even winning that gold medal then you're excited to come back and win a championship with this team um so there's always things to win there's always things to push for and if you stop caring about that or if you stop wanting that I feel like you don't really love the game anymore because that's I in my opinion that's half the fun of playing this sport is there's always something to be excited about and to fight for totally yeah you guys mentioned the joy that was back in this team how much does that just impact you heading into this second half of of the Season here yeah I think like when you're playing freely and you're playing with joy like you're at your best and I think that was something Emma did a great job of I think it's something Rob does a great job of of just like reminding us of why we play even her message to us in that final was like you get to play one final game with your friends in Paris like it doesn't get better than that and I think Rob does a great job echoing kind of the same messages of like this is what you love to do this is what you're great at enjoy doing it cuz I think it's easy to over complicate things sometimes and kind of get stuck in some of the es and flows of this profession that's just like insane um but when we come back to why we play and like that how much we love it I think we're we're all at our best so we just want to keep doing that okay so my question is for both of you did you have like what did you do to celebrate after you won and Paris was there anything you did specifically oh we had like we had like a we had a part like we had a celebration with family friends um which was fun um and then I mean that was kind of it in Paris right I flew immediately home to see my fiance that's my version we were all ready to kind of also like get out of there so I think everyone then kind of did things individually with like their family and friends but being able to just like have one big kind of collective party was was also really fun and what would you say like your walk out song would be like after you won the gold medal like what song like plays in your head as you're like having Strut by Cheetah Girls that was the team song there's no other opiner like there's no other song yeah strut strut everyone knows it's strut and it's so fitting it is yeah your dress is so good for that you got the cheetah yes she knew she knew knew TR we know I was raised um you kind of touched on it a little bit about being ready to come home there's been a lot of talk about the schedule and how it's a really grilling schedule it's like practice game travel practice game travel and I'm wondering if you would be if you would be in favor of change maybe changing it so that there was a little less kind of grueling schedule and was that hard on you guys and your buys are you talking specifically for the Olympics yeah yeah I mean it it was definitely grueling is very challenging um obviously there's a lot of factors at play with an International Tournament especially in Olympics um I think we'll always say yes to more rest between games um but we just have like the best medical team and support staff to help us be ready to play every 48 hours but definitely mentally emotionally physically like it takes a toll and um but yeah I I think we'll never say no to a little extra time between games yeah and then s would just love to hear more about just your thoughts on adding Alexa and railan to the team as well yeah I'm so excited about that I um grew up playing with Alexa at youth national team camps for a long time we were best friends and we clicked a lot on the field so I'm really excited for that connection to come back and Lex is such a a great player she's really really technical I feel like that's one of her greatest strengths is what she can do in small spaces um she's great on the wing she you know she goes to goal she wants to score goals just as much as anyone so I'm really excited about playing with her again um and I love her off the field too and then railen I I think she's she's great um I've only played with her for a few days so um still building that relationship but I think she'll be great for us she's obviously a great player she's a young player and I think she has so much potential um and yeah I think it's G to be fun to just work with her and get that connection going um and I'm excited about it I think we have we have a great group and we just have to kind of put the pieces together and I think we'll be we'll be going you know really well and then last question for me is the biggest story of the Olympics wasn't about sports it was about a muffin uh did you guys get to try the chocolate muffin you know the chocolate muffin in the um Olympic Village we didn't uh we didn't try you didn't even go to the Olympic Village right no yeah we there was one day so we didn't stay there we she doesn't even know what you're talking about clear it wasn't the biggest story cuz I didn't hear it yeah well we were also like in a bubble and we didn't know anything that was happening anywhere so um but we visited the Olympic Village one day and a couple of the girls tried the muffin and I think enjoyed it I did not try it but I hear there's like dup recipes and things like that so I'll have to try it at some point but we did not experience that yeah we we did experience cold though so it's okay fair trade off yeah fair trade all right thank you everyone appreciate it you thank you