Born To Be A Star, Raised To Be A Legend - A Riley Andersen Story

Chapter 11: Debut at the Paris Olympics

͏After 23 days of waiting, the day had finally arrived. The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games would finally begin, one day earlier, the United States women's field hockey team were at Riley's house to take her to the airport that would take them straight to Europe, Because she was so young, the players decided that they would let Riley stay in the first class along with 2 other players who would stay with Riley.

The cast was completely formed 4 days after Riley said he would accept going to Paris and accepting the invitation from the American delegation. The cast that sought gold in Field Hockey was this:

Kelsey Bing
Jersey Number: 31
Position: Goalkeeper

Leah Crouse
Jersey Number: 20
Position: Defense

Brooke DeBerdine
Jersey Number: 8
Position: Midfield

Emma DeBerdine
Jersey Number: 27
Position: Midfield

Phia Gladieux
Jersey Number: 23
Position: Forward

Amanda Golini
Jersey Number: 12
Position: Midfield, co-captain

Ally Hammel
Jersey Number: 21
Position: Defense

Ashley Hoffman
Jersey Number: 13
Position: Defense, co-captain

Karlie Kisha
Jersey Number: 25
Position: Defense

Kelee Lepage
Jersey Number: 24
Position: Defense

Ashley Sessa
Jersey Number: 3
Position: Forward

Meredith Sholder
Jersey Number: 2
Position: Midfield

Abby Tamer
Jersey Number: 1
Position: Forward

Beth Yeager
Jersey Number: 17
Position: Midfield

Maddie Zimmer
Jersey Number: 9
Position: Midfield

Riley Andersen
Jersey Number: 15
Position: Forward

A select and exclusive group of young girls under the age of 15 who did not feel the pressure of being in the spotlight and achieved an unprecedented medal. Even before the Paris Olympic Games began, All field hockey media were already highlighting Riley as "The Light at the End of the Tunnel" in the gold medal campaign.

Nadia Comăneci, a simple 14 year old girl from Romania, gold medalist before she was 15 years old at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Rayssa Leal, a young girl from Brazil who won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on Skate Street, aged just 13.

Dominique Moceanu, 14 years old and already Olympic champion in team gymnastics at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Tatiana Gutsu, champion of the individual all-around in artistic gymnastics and gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics at 15-year-old.

Kyoko Iwasaki and her incredible swimming performance also won her the gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Riley, aged 14, would make her debut in Paris and if she left the city of light with the gold medal playing field hockey, she could become the second youngest player in history to win a gold medal before the age of 15.

Paris would host the Olympic Games again after 100 years since the last edition in 1924, but if there was one thing that Americans wanted to see was whether such a young woman would be able to handle the Olympic cycle for the first time. Would the campaign be easy? Clearly not. Riley always said that she never saw herself as a winner who couldn't accept losing.

July 26, 2024 - Paris, France. Riley wakes up from her hotel bed to finally see the opening ceremony of the Olympic games with her own eyes. Riley shared her room with Sunisa Lee from then Artistic Gymnastics, so , Riley decided to wake up early and get ready to prepare for the opening ceremony that would take place in a few hours.