- Olivia Moultrie sued the NWSL for the right to play despite the league's age restrictions.
- Her lawsuit paved the way for herself and other teenagers to thrive in professional women's soccer.
- The now-17-year-old told Insider she's proud of her impact even though it "wasn't what I had set out to do."
Olivia Moultrie never meant to become the champion of women's soccer's teenage prodigies.
But now, two years after the then-15-year-old sued the National Women's Soccer League for the right to play in the league despite its strict age restrictions, Moultrie has paved the way for herself and other young stars to flourish in the highest ranks of American women's soccer.
And even though "that wasn't what I had set out to do," Moultrie told Insider she's proud of her impact on the sport and her peers.
"When I was fighting to start playing, obviously you're in a small bubble," Moultrie said. "But of course, there's this bigger picture of, like, why isn't there a simple way for women if they're good enough to be able to move towards their dreams and go for what they want?"
"They have this in Europe, they have it for the men in America, but yet we don't have it here," she added.
Moultrie, who grew up in Wilsonville, Oregon, committed to UNC — the winningest women's soccer program in the NCAA — at just 11 years old. Two years later, she reneged to sign a nearly decade-long endorsement deal with Nike that officially made her a professional athlete.
It didn't take long for her to feel "ready" to play with the pros. So Moultrie filed her lawsuit in May 2021, claiming the NWSL's rule that players must be 18 or older to sign with a team violated antitrust law.
A temporary restraining order enabled Moultrie to officially sign with the Portland Thorns — a club she'd trained with for the prior two seasons — a few months after the initial filing, with the two sides agreeing to a settlement shortly after that. Less than a year later, when the NWSL Players Association inked its first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the league, the NWSL's under-18 rule was officially gone.
"As soon as it allowed other people to do the same thing, it was just like, this is great," Moultrie said. "This is exactly how we want the women's game to evolve."
Now, Moultrie — who won a championship with the Thorns last season — is one of several teenage stars thriving in the NWSL. She has two assists and a goal through six appearances thus far in the season. Two 15-year-olds, Chloe Ricketts of the Washington Spirit and Melanie Barcenas of the San Diego Wave, have appeared for their respective teams this year.
Alyssa Thompson, an 18-year-old striker whom Moultrie says she's known "since I was like six years old," leads a star-studded Angel City FC squad with three goals through seven games this season. Wave forward Jaedyn Shaw, who is also 18, sits just behind Alex Morgan on the team's list of top goal-scorers on the year.
"The couple people that have done it, I've been on youth national teams with, and I've known them for a really long time," Moultrie said. "So that's obviously super cool just to see that happening. We've worked through the ranks, I guess you could say, together in some way."
"It's been a nice way to be able to connect with people on a different level because there's finally somebody kind of in my age range," she added with a laugh.