DSHS senior wins Olympic gold

7 DSHS senior wins Olympic gold

Faith Wylie, a graduating senior and soccer player at Dripping Springs High School, competed in the XXIV Summer Deaflympic Games earlier this month.

Last week, she took home the gold.

Wylie is a member of the U.S. Deaf Women’s National Soccer Team, part of the nonprofit USA Deaf Soccer Association. This year, the team traveled to Caxias Do Sul, Brazil, to compete in the Deaflympics, an international multi-sport event with approximately 4,500 deaf athletes and teams from over 100 countries. The women have brought home the gold every year since the first time they appeared in the games in 2005.

The USDWNST are also the reigning 2012 and 2016 Deaf World Cup Champions.

The competition began with a game against Brazil on May 3. USA won, 4-0.

The team played Japan on May 7 and won 1-0, with Wylie scoring the gamewinning goal. In a match with Kenya on May 9, USA scored a whopping 13 goals to Kenya’s 0.

After a victory over Poland on May 11, both teams made it to the gold medal match on May 15. The rematch between the two ended in a USA win, 4-2, with Wylie scoring another game-winning goal.

Wylie has been involved with the U.S. Deaf Women’s National Soccer Team for five years, attending training camps with the organization every year. Because there are no junior-level teams, the team ranges from ages 14 to 41 and includes about 80 individuals. Twenty-two of those were selected to travel to the Deaflympics, an international multi-sport event, from May 1–15 in Caxias Do Sul, Brazil.

The team is led by volunteer coaches Amy Griffin and Joy Fawcett, both former U.S. national team players on the 1991 Women’s World Cup championship team.

“My wife found the team playing in Italy in the Deaf World Cup, and Faith was already playing soccer,” said Mark Wylie, Faith Wylie’s father. “After Faith attended her first camp at the age of 13 in Washington state, she attended every camp since, getting together with them twice a year for 5 to 7 days at a time.”

Faith Wylie is the secondyoungest player on the USDWNT and was the youngest until this past year. She is committed to play soccer at Murray State College in the fall.