How faith has influenced soccer trailblazer Olivia Moultrie

Olivia Moultrie is not your average 18-year-old.

Instead of sitting in a college classroom right now, she’s in the middle of her fourth season as a professional soccer player, playing for the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League.

While navigating the life of a professional athlete, the midfielder, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been able to lean on her faith during challenging moments.

Moultrie told the Deseret News while in Utah for a July game against the Utah Royals that her faith has “been a major part of” her young and pioneering career.

“I’ve had a lot of firsts and a lot of hard situations that I put myself into to get to where I am today, and I really think the backbone of all of that has been my ability to have my faith and just really believing everything happens for a reason and that the decisions I feel motivated to make and compelled to make, I feel like there is a reason behind those things,” she said.

Olivia Moultrie’s journey to become a professional soccer player

Moultrie is also not your average soccer player.

At just 11 years old, she received a scholarship offer from the University of North Carolina, a women’s college soccer powerhouse that has produced U.S. national team stars like Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly , Cindy Parlow, Heather O’Reilly and Crystal Dunn.

Two years later, she decided to forego her scholarship from North Carolina and her collegiate athletic eligibility by turning pro after signing a representation deal with sports agency Wasserman Media Group and an endorsement deal from Nike.

She then moved with her family from California to Oregon, so she could attend the Portland Thorns Academy and train alongside Thorns players.

Unlike her male counterparts in the MLS, Moultrie wouldn’t be able to actually play in a professional game until she was 18 because of the policies of the NWSL, the only women’s professional league in the U.S. at the time.

She decided to change that.

When she was 15, Moultrie filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NWSL and was granted a preliminary injunction by the judge, which allowed her to sign a three-year deal with the Thorns and become the youngest player to sign a NWSL contract, as the Deseret News previously reported.

Through her faith, she feels confident that the decisions she made that allowed her to turn professional at such a young age were the right ones for her, she said.

“Just being where I’m at in my career and even though it’s early, I feel really strongly that this is the best pathway I could have taken — being a Portland Thorn, moving to Oregon. That’s honestly been the biggest part of every decision that I’ve made thus far,” she said.

Moultrie’s lawsuit paved the way for other young women pursuing a professional soccer career in the U.S. Nearly 20 teenagers are now in the NWSL, according to ESPN .

Moultrie’s decision to turn pro at such a young age led to criticism of and high expectations for her career. But instead of getting caught up in all the noise, she focuses on her personal goals and expectations.

“There may be expectations from other people, but they’re never expectations that I haven’t already put on myself. I’m a very ambitious person. I like to set goals and then accomplish them and then go off to the next thing. That’s kind of how my brain operates anyways. I’m a very Type A, ‘Where’s the checklist? Let me get through the checklist,’ type of person, and that’s how I approach each day. Honestly, one of the most important things for me moving in my career has just been like completely focusing on myself and that’s been super helpful.”

Already an NWSL champion — the Thorns won in her first season — Moultrie is planning on “continuing to grow with the Thorns” and is ready to keep checking goals and achievements off of her checklist.

She’s been productive over the course of the last 12 months:

• In October: Moultrie was called up to her first senior national team camp .
• In December: Moultrie made her senior national team debut against China.
• In January: Moultrie was named the 2023 U.S. Soccer’s Young Female Player of the Year .
• In February: Moultrie signed a three-year extension with Portland.
• In February: Moultrie earned her first start for the senior national team in the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup and scored her first two goals for the team in her first start, becoming the third youngest player to score multiple goals in a match for the U.S. national team behind Hamm and Parlow.

“I want to win more championships here. I’m always trying to just become the best player I can be, and so if that means, NWSL MVP someday or things like that. Obviously, those are things that are nice, but at the end of the day, it’s how can I help my team win in the greatest way possible — and that’s 100% applicable with the national team. I want to continue to grow my role there and obviously like (have my) sights set on the next World Cup for sure,” she said.

How Olivia Moultrie lives her faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ

How Moultrie worships and lives her faith looks different than it does for most Latter-day Saints, due to the unique schedule conflicts that come with being a professional athlete. Sunday games mean she sometimes misses church services.

While she tries to attend as often as she can, she takes solace in the fact that her faith also resides outside of her church building, in her everyday life.

“The nice part about it is, obviously, like my faith can, it’s always with me, and so it’s not something that like I feel I have to necessarily attend something to feel (it). Obviously, I’m trying to go to church as much as possible,” she said. “With all the Sunday games that’s not always applicable, but just making any moments I can in my day to kind of like ground myself, I think that’s important. It’s been a big part of why I’ve been able to stay so focused in what I do. Always making time for that is important because sometimes it may feel like an extra thing, but at the end of the day, it makes everything so much better. It’s really just adding more joy, more peace into everything I do.”

She’s grateful for the supportive community the church provides, especially in her local congregation in Oregon, that continues to support her regardless of how often she can attend.

“Even if I couldn’t attend events, they were there every time I needed them, especially recently like dealing with my injury,” she said. “It’s something that I can always rely on and know that those are people I can reach out to, and that’s been something that’s been extremely helpful moving to Oregon and our ward up there is amazing.”

How Olivia Moultrie leans on her faith during adversity

This summer, Moultrie experienced a small hiccup in her plans of winning titles for both her club and country.

She was sidelined for five games while recovering from an injury, putting her out of contention for a roster spot to represent the U.S. in the Paris Olympics — she coincidentally made her return to the pitch against the Utah Royals in front of family in Utah , where she was born.

“The plan is always flexible, and I’m reaching for what is the biggest achievement in every moment, like that’s what I’m striving for. Obviously, the injury took me out of something that was extremely important to me, but that’s also something that I can’t control. Another thing that I feel like I’ve really learned throughout my career is completely focusing on what is in my control, and that hasn’t always been easy, especially like I’ve never really had an injury like this before. So that was another new learning curve,” she said. “At the end of the day, I didn’t get to go (to Paris), but now I’m back on the field faster than anybody thought and back with my teammates and so, I get to find joy in those moments.”

Moultrie’s faith has “100%” helped her learn that lesson of not focusing on things outside of her control and gives her perspective in times of adversity and disappointment, she said.

“It’s a part of literally everything. Like I said, it’s kind of like the backbone to everything, and I can connect that to anything that I do,” she said. So I may be thinking like, ‘Oh, you know, bumps in the road, everything happens for a reason’ and like all these things we say. To me, that is the bigger picture in like bringing that back to my faith and how that makes me feel and how they give me confidence in these decisions and in these feelings that I’m trying to work on in terms of controlling what I can.”