Sure phrases recur in analyses of Girma’s attributes as a participant: intelligence, composure, calm. That’s additionally a fairly correct summation of how she presents in dialog, though I’d be tempted so as to add guarded. Sure subjects are off the desk at present. One is her finest good friend, and Stanford teammate, who died by suicide three years in the past. The loss prompted Girma, who devoted her 2023 World Cup marketing campaign to her good friend, to assist arrange Create the House, a retreat designed to encourage conversations round psychological well being in girls’s soccer.
One other is Donald Trump, who as we converse is dismantling variety packages at house within the US. Girma, who’s the primary participant of Ethiopian descent within the historical past of america girls’s nationwide group (“my mother and father at all times really feel actually proud after they hear that”), will say that variety is “tremendous necessary.” It was extensively seen as key to Staff USA’s monumental success on the 2024 Video games—not so very way back, the nation’s Olympic athletes have been overwhelmingly white. “It was actually cool for us to be on the very best stage representing how impactful it may be,” she says, “not solely to our group, but in addition to the folks watching.” Naomi’s personal heritage, in fact, knowledgeable her upbringing in numerous methods. “Household and group is such a giant factor in Ethiopia—our mother and father made certain that me and my brother had these values, of actually supporting your family and friends, and being there for each other.”
Girma glows when she talks about her household—Nathaniel has already been over for a go to and her mom is due in a few weeks—and discussions across the subsequent ladies’ vacation are underway within the group chat. “We would go to Mexico,” she says, though it appears her behavior of overthinking doesn’t lengthen to locations and itineraries. “I’m not the one within the good friend group who plans the journeys,” she admits, laughing.
She has a ready-made circle at Chelsea too: she’s near midfielder Catarina Macario, who she performed with in faculty, and to their USA teammate Mia Fishel. “It was very nice to go in figuring out they have been there already. Truthfully, after a number of days I used to be like, OK, it’s regular that I’m right here.” So she’s taking all of it in, prepared to show that single-minded focus to what introduced her right here: profitable trophies. “I’m excited to be a part of this group and the legacy and tradition round it,” she says. “I’m simply excited for this chapter.”
