USWNT veteran forward Lynn Biyendolo and her husband, Marley, are expecting their first child, she announced on Saturday. The couple shared the news on Instagram.
The two-time Olympic medalist, who won gold with the U.S. in Paris in 2024, joins a growing list of active U.S. players who have chosen to start families over the past year. In the spring, fellow forwards Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson also announced their pregnancies.
Biyendolo, the all-time leading goal scorer across all competitions in the National Women’s Soccer League and a four-time NWSL champion, joined Seattle Reign last year after two seasons with Gotham. The 32-year-old last featured for the Reign on Aug. 24, with the club reporting her unavailable for selection on Oct. 9 due to a knee injury.
At the national team level, Biyendolo has proven her value as a goal-scoring threat with ample experience, even after being snubbed from World Cup rosters, like in 2019. Last year, she arrived in Paris as an injury replacement for teammate Catarina Macario, and went on to be a key contributor to the team’s success in the tournament.
“You don’t realize the impact she’s made for this team, even in my time here, she’s come from the bench in almost every situation we’ve been in and made a major impact,” U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes said on Saturday. “That’s my challenge to my own team. How are we going to fill that? How are we going to fill that void with her absence?”
Speaking at a pre-match availability ahead of her team’s next game against Portugal in Connecticut, Hayes told reporters she was “delighted” for Biyendolo.
“She is an old soul who will be an incredible mum,” Hayes said, “and if she so chooses to continue playing her career, we will support that. Whether she wants to compete to come back for a World Cup, you’d have to ask Lynn those questions.”
With another veteran player stepping away from football to start a family, and a World Cup less than two years away, Hayes shared with reporters how the national team has approached players’ pregnancies. She described a “360 approach” that the team’s staff has taken with all its players, including Biyendolo.
The process, lasting from pre- to post-pregnancy, involves an interdisciplinary team formed around each player, with national and club teams coming together to develop a program that supports the player on and off the field.
The program’s goal, Hayes said, is to guide players through pregnancy and then help them return post-pregnancy in the safest way possible.
Since her arrival to the national team in 2024, Hayes has taken a holistic approach to reimagining the U.S. women’s program, like reimagining the U-23 program as an extension to the nation’s senior team. This “360 approach” to player pregnancies appears to be another avenue for Hayes to reimagine the culture and structure around the national team, as she hinted at a larger program in the works for players.
Hayes said U.S. Soccer is putting together a pre- and post-pregnancy protocol that it plans to share with “our larger landscape” in the future. She could not yet specify a timeframe for its announcement.
“This is some really exciting stuff,” Hayes said. “I know we had our 360 with Lynn the other day, and I know she will be supported, like all of our players in their pregnancy.”
The decision by a growing number of players to opt into becoming parents, sometimes in the primes of their careers, speaks to a generational shift in the sport. Those in the game are openly talking about fertility and women’s health, with Hayes on Saturday making a casual reference to “menopausal forgetfulness.” There are also more resources available to players than ever before to help them navigate parenthood, including at the U.S. club level.
Last month, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman hinted at programs in the works to better support working mothers in the league through additional resources, like better access to childcare. This, Berman said, was created alongside a group of active players.
In their social media post on Saturday, the Biyendolos shared a video of the couple at home on their couch, surrounded by baby accessories, like a striped onesie and a pair of baby Nikes. In the caption, they wrote, “you are already so loved.”
The post quickly garnered an outpouring of well wishes from teammates in the NWSL and beyond. In one comment, Wilson, who welcomed her daughter Gianni Capri in early September, wrote: “Omg! the babies keep coming and I’m sooo happy!!”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
US Women’s national team, OL Reign, NWSL, Women’s Soccer, women’s sports
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