Soccer phenom Trinity Rodman, a 22-year-old forward on the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT), brims with energy over Zoom’s familiar portal.
It’s an early July afternoon, and she’s between training sessions at the team’s campus in Galesburg, Virginia. She’s refreshed, hair pulled back, and is wearing a pinkish-orange jumper (a semi-subtle hint at what she’ll later describe as “very Trin” style). If our current video call era has somewhat flattened and attenuated the way we converse, none of its monotony is apparent here; Rodman feels like she’s genuinely across the table. She looks at me dead on. She holds eye contact. And she speaks freely.
“In the past,” she says, “we liked to have the ball. We liked to score. Now, it’s about being able to still have that hunger off the ball, then to have patience. Change the rhythm, slow it down, find the moment.”
Matthew Stith
Rodman is observing the USWNT’s in-real-time evolution as she and her teammates prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Gone, as of now, are the high-octane years of American near-domination in global women’s soccer, which saw the USWNT win 3 out of 6 FIFA World Cups from 1999 to 2019 (with a razor-close miss on a fourth) and 4 Olympic gold medals from 1996 to 2012. In this epoch, offense was at the apex. It made athletes such as Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe household names. And it set an exospheric standard that, inevitably, would need to come back down to earth: at the 2023 World Cup, the USWNT did not advance past the round of 16. Knowing Paris was on the horizon, the team has since regrouped (and welcomed a new coach, Emma Hayes). Rodman, in this chapter, has emerged as their newest star, attracting big name partner, such as adidas.
The daughter of former NBA player Dennis Rodman, she also speaks often of “creativity” and differentiation, in both playing style and lifestyle, throughout our discussion. Such impulses may run in the family: Dennis was as offensive as he was defensive on the court, and moved extra-quickly between plays. Rodman herself seems to be keenly aware–almost in a sixth sense manner, and definitely in terms of her focus–of the ebbs, flows, subtle shifts and not-so-subtle big moments of team sport. The finesse needed to capitalize on all of it–not just the attack–is what she believes will be the key to the USWNT’s success going forward. Below, Rodman discusses the team’s dynamic heading into the Games, her own idols and interests, and a bit on her father’s famed fashions.
Vogue: Hey Trinity. Thanks for talking to us today.