Heading into the Paris Olympics, the USWNT looked a bit shaky. The team entered the competition after going through their worst World Cup campaign and had players filled with rookies for whom this marked their first Olympics led by Emma Hayes who only started two months ago. Not exactly the perfect setup for a gold medal run, right? But guess what? The Stars and Stripes proved all the naysayers wrong by beating Brazil to snag that Gold Medal! Even Serena Williams‘ husband Alexis Ohanian, who’s been cheering on women’s soccer like crazy couldn’t have seen this coming.

The Reddit co-founder has always been a big advocate for women’s sports and even invested in NWSL team Angel City FC. After the USWNT crashed out of the round of 16 at the 2023 World Cup, the heartbreak of the loss was real for Ohanian too. But just like Serena Williams never backed down on the court, Alexis didn’t throw in the towel either. After that tough loss, he made a bold prediction.

One year ago he tweeted, “I 100% think there will be an epic #RedeemTeam type story for our USWNT just you wait and see. I’m calling it now.” Fast forward one year later—he nailed it as the Emma Hayes’ side earned that Paris Olympic gold. But this even took Alexis Ohanian by surprise as the 41-year-old wasn’t expecting this redeem story to come this early.

After Emma Hayes’ squad snagged the gold medal, he retweeted his tweet from last year and said, “BOOM. USWNT did it. TBH I tweeted this a year ago thinking it’d take a little longer, but WTG ladies.” The USWNT really pulled off something amazing with this victory and silenced all those doubters who were around before the tournament. One of those doubters? None other than USWNT legend Carli Lloyd—who’s now gotten her questions put to rest too!

Emma Hayes gave Carli Lloyd the ‘star’ that she felt was missing

Before the tournament kicked off, Carli Lloyd was one of many who were hopeful but wasn’t fully sold on betting for the USWNT to take home the win. One of her main concerns about the squad heading into the tournament was that they lacked standout players capable of creating those game-changing moments. She pointed out legends like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, and Abby Wambach, saying there just wasn’t anyone in their league this time around.

Well, fast forward through the tournament, and while no one expected it, several players really stepped up and became those stars that USWNT desperately needed! Even Lloyd had to give them props after their big win when a fan called her out on her earlier comments.

She stated, “There was no star going into this Olympics and multiple players came out as stars. Front 3, Girma, Alyssa.” Emma Hayes has truly worked some magic with this team in such a short time. It’s pretty exciting for USWNT fans to think about what else could be on the horizon!