What Happens After You Climb The Mountain?
Team USA World Games Alternate Olivia Player on her journey to the top of the sport and what comes next once you get there
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Making The World Games Team—And What Comes Next
The World Games are the closest level of competition we have in ultimate to an Olympic level. Every four years, eight teams1 come together from around the world to compete for gold. The United States has won the last five gold medals (out of six total tournaments played) and will look to take home its sixth gold medal this August in Chengdu, China. Making the roster of the most dominant, decorated ultimate nation in the world is difficult enough. There are 20 spots, split evenly between Man-Matching Players (MMPs) and Woman-Matching Players (WMPs), with 14 rostered spots and six alternates. To make this team in any capacity is an incredible achievement.
But how do you get there? And more interestingly, what is it like once you do?
Even as someone with big, occasionally delusional, dreams about the kinds of ultimate or teams I want to be playing/playing on some day, the World Games has felt like some mythical thing far out of my reach. Which is why I was so happy that current Team USA alternate and breakout star of Boston (Lexington? please get some consistency with your naming convention this year, guys) Sprocket’s Cinderella run to the USAU Club Championships Final, Olivia (Liv) Player sat down with me to discuss her experience making the team. And despite how it all worked out for Player, it almost never started.
“I personally did not apply until an hour before the application was due,” was the very first thing she said about her tryout process. “I didn't get a WUC (World Ultimate Championships) tryout, and so I was like, ‘why would I get a World Games tryout if I didn't get this WUC tryout?’ And literally that night, I thought, ‘Okay, I might as well.’ There's no harm in applying.”
That may seem like a big thing to apply for impulsively, but for Player, perhaps it was inevitable. Like many ultimate players, the COVID-19 pandemic radically altered the trajectory of her time in the sport.
“After the pandemic, I reassessed all my priorities. If I’m playing, I want to commit to it fully. I took a year off to figure things out. I left 2021, super burnt out. Then in February 2023, I realized maybe I do want to play.”
And what better way to play, and to fully commit, than to aim high from the jump. A friend mentioned Portland Rising (previously Portland, Maine’s Premier Ultimate League team) to Player, but the only problem was that tryouts had already started.
“It was in the middle of tryouts, though. It was about to be the last round. Thankfully, the coach I knew from college and I was like, ‘Yo, is this cool? Could I crash and tryout?’ It ended up working out, which was great.”
But as anyone who has taken an extended break from ultimate knows, returning to play is not for the faint of heart, let alone returning to play at the professional level.
“I was so out of shape,” Player laughed. “I threw up in the first round. I just waddled to the bathroom didn't tell anyone and came back. That's a recurring theme. I did it at the World Games tryout, too.”
But as we’ve already learned, a tight deadline and turnaround for a high-stakes tryout is something Player thrives on.
“I made the team. It was great. There were certainly ups and downs throughout the season. I hadn't played Frisbee in almost two years, and I expected my abilities to be one thing, and they were something else when I came out on the field.”
And that disconnect between mind and body can be very challenging, but also humbling and motivating for athletes who are seeking to make it to the highest level.
“That was really frustrating,” Player admitted. “But also a good reminder, though, that I have to work.”
And work she did. Over the past couple of years, Player has ascended to a new level and become one of the most dynamic players in the PUL, as well as entering the top echelon of elite club players, having been a critical piece of Sprocket’s run last year. And a lot of that has been motivated by proving to herself and everyone else in the community that she is one of the best in the world.
“ I want a chip on my shoulder, I want the bulletin board material. I love that. I love the opportunity to just be like, ‘okay, watch it. See? I'll show you.’”
And after she decided to commit to the World Games tryout, that’s the mindset she brought to competing with the best players in the world for a spot on this team.
“It doesn't matter what we say or what we think, we just have to go do it. If I lose, I lose, that's cool, but I'm going to do my best not to. I felt that way through the tryout process.”
But Player has found in the months since those World Games tryouts, and making the team, a deeper challenge than just working really hard and proving people wrong has been, ‘How do I handle actually having done that? How do I handle these new expectations I have for myself and others have for me?’
“My first game with [PUL’s New York] Gridlock was my first event happening after making the World Games team, the first public event since Sprocket made the final run. I was nervous for the first time in forever. I was not nervous at the World Games tryouts at all. I wasn't nervous during the finals run. It was at that first game that I was nervous, because I was like, ‘Oh my god. People will probably care if I really fuck up.’” Player felt a sense of pressure for the first time in a long time. Putting her head down to prove the haters wrong wouldn’t work anymore. She’d already done that.
“It's expected. I need to go perform now. People are expecting me to go perform. I don't think I played super well because of that. I executed on offense but defensively, I was on my heels. I wasn't super aggressive. And that's because I was thinking about that pressure for the first time.”
But in the weeks and months since, Player has adapted her approach, called on her new teammates with veteran experience at all levels of the sport, and shifted her mindset.
“What's been helpful is that now I have resources in people who have been there before. Prior to this, I had maybe a few, but not to the same extent. Having people who I can turn to in moments like, ‘Hey, I'm struggling with this thing. I'm feeling the weight of this thing,’ has so far been really helpful, and I think will continue to be.”
And beyond just having a new network of teammates who are all feeling the same things she is, many with more experience in this spot than she has, Player has a whole host of lessons she’s learned as well from her deep dive back into elite ultimate to carry with her. And the most important thing is that from time to time, it’s good to remember this is a game, played for fun.
“So much of it is just like not letting anything be bigger than what it is. I am certainly proud and excited for the opportunity, proud of the accomplishment, and all of that stuff, but it’s just one step in a very long journey. It's a marathon. It's not a sprint,” she said of what she’s come to realize about this opportunity to be on the World Games team.
“And it's a very silly sport,” she continued. “It's so silly. It's so silly what we do. It's cool and exciting that there are media outlets that care about the sport that we play, but it's still silly…I think most of us still haven't even figured out how to play it the best way yet. I'm just trying to take everything as an opportunity to grow and be better. And any day that I'm going out to practice, if I can find one little skill to work on, one little mental piece, that I can be better at, then I'll be better for it.”
In internalizing that mindset and that process, Player found results on the field in the PUL again.
“In this last game, I tried to really shift that mindset, and instead of thinking about the external expectations, I was just thinking about like playing my part within our system and executing at my job.”
And ultimately, no matter how good you get, no matter how big the stage is, we are all playing for the same reasons.
“You gotta take it all. The losses are cool, too. That's what makes the sport fun. There are people who are gonna be better than you at any given point on any given day. And that's true of all of us, even the best players in the entire world.”
And in the time since this interview, Player helped Team USA to a London Invite win just a few weekends ago.
About The Breakside
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About the Author
My name is Noam Gumerman (he/him). I am from Chapel Hill, NC, and studied Journalism and American Studies at Brandeis University. I am a journalist by trade and have been playing ultimate for over half my life. I love nothing more than combining those two interests. Contact me for discussions, feedback, story suggestions, and more on Twitter or Bluesky (@noamgum/@breaksideulti now too!) or email (noamgumerman@gmail.com).
In the first several iterations of the tournament, it was six teams