It’s a dream many young athletes have, but few ever achieve: competing in the Olympic Games.

From starting in all 14 games as a true freshman for Penn State’s field hockey team, to being named Penn State’s Female Athlete of the Year for the 2022-23 season, to becoming the team’s all-time leading goal scorer, to competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Sophia Gladieux has forged a legacy for herself in women’s field hockey.

After being the fourth-ever Penn State field hockey player to be added to the USA Field Hockey Olympic roster, Gladieux competed in the Paris games against South Africa, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, and Spain.

The Olympics were not Gladieux’s first time playing for the U.S., as she trained with the team in May 2023 in preparation for the series game against New Zealand, but did not earn her first cap until a year later, in May 2024, against Belgium.

While Gladieux had the talent and abilities to compete with the U.S., it took her a year and a half to officially join the team after her initial talk with head coach David Passmore.

“Joining the team was definitely a long time coming, but I had felt a lot of self-doubt, anxiety, and pressure,” Gladieux explained. “Coach David and I fostered a great relationship where he let me do things on my own time and my own pace.”

Ultimately, the forward decided to push herself outside her comfort zone by joining the team in time for its first Pro League game against Belgium for the International Field Hockey Tournament.

Despite her anxieties, Gladieux had an impressive first cap and even recorded an assist off her backhand to forward Abby Tamer. After her first cap, Gladieux survived the two rounds of cuts to be named to the 16-man roster for the Paris games.

“I had to train for three months basically to have the endurance and fitness level to compete because it’s different than in college. In the Olympics, you’re playing with some of the best girls in the world, so everything’s different from the practices to the atmosphere,” said Gladieux.

Coming to the Olympics proved to be a testament to Gladieux’s mental perseverance, as she had to begin to trust herself and her abilities.

“In those fast-paced games, you don’t have time to overthink or you’re going to miss your shot, so I had to get used to just making those quick decisions,” she said.

Quick decisions ultimately helped Gladieux notch her first goal for Team USA in its match against then-No. 6 Spain. With a ball deflected off of the goalie’s pads, Gladieux took her opportunity to put the ball in the back of the cage.

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“I just remember jumping in my teammate’s arms and the stadium going crazy,” Gladieux said.

As for the rest of the Olympic games, Gladieux was conscious of her decision to not let the pressures of the surrounding stadium throw her off her game.

“In our game against Argentina, I definitely had my ‘I made it’ moment, but then after that, I just tried to treat it like any other game, because if you make it bigger in your head, it’ll just make you crumble,” Gladieux said.

In regards to the overall experience of attending the Olympics, the Penn Stater reflected on the impact of the Olympic Village.

“You have people like Suni Lee and Katie Ledecky walking around, which is so exciting but it also shows you they’re also just athletes who are under the same amount of pressure, so having that perspective made things a bit easier,” Gladieux said.

While the U.S. didn’t medal, the experience changed Gladieux’s performance throughout the 2024 season. While holding the No. 1 spot for most goals per game in the NCAA and accounting for 17 of the 27 total goals scored by the Nittany Lions, Gladieux’s athleticism has improved exponentially.

“I can feel the way competing in the Olympics has shifted my abilities because now I can last entire games without needing a break. The fitness level I had to get to for the Olympics has changed the trajectory of my game at Penn State,” Gladieux said.

Not only has the Olympic experience helped Gladieux’s on-field performance, but it’s also helped her become a better leader for her Penn State team.

“On the national team, you’re playing with girls who are older than you and have a different level of maturity, so you learn how to hold your teammates accountable in a positive way. I tell all our freshmen that they’re on this team for a reason, and of course, we hold them to a certain standard,” Gladieux said.

However, Gladieux does not hold her teammates to a standard different than her own.

“I think coming off of an Olympic team, I definitely hold myself to a higher standard than before but it’s not just with skill. It was important for me to realize that coming back to the NCAA, the skill level might be different, but work ethic shouldn’t change,” Gladieux said.

Even though she sometimes feels the pressures from some after her Olympic run, Gladieux shed light on how her team and head coach Lisa Bervinchak Love have done a great job of keeping her grounded during this transition period. Although Gladieux only had five days off between her Olympic run and the start of preseason, she’s felt nothing but support from Bervinchak Love and the rest of the coaching staff.

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“There’s almost nothing I can’t talk to coach Love about and I feel like she cares about us as people outside of just players. She still holds me to a certain standard but it doesn’t feel like she’s putting unwanted pressure on me, and it’s been like that for the past five years at Penn State,” Gladieux said.

In her final year of eligibility, Gladieux is balancing her student-teaching with her highly demanding field hockey schedule but said she can’t wait to give back to the younger generation through teaching.

“It just feels full circle giving back to the younger generation like I had people do for me at a younger age,” Gladiuex said.

She also explained her hopes of pairing her love of education with the possibility of coaching.

“I definitely feel that I would love helping the younger generation grow and develop in some capacity and still be involved in field hockey in some way,” she said.

Gladieux’s relationship with field hockey is long from over though, as she hopes to join the U.S. Women’s Field Hockey team after college and play for another few years.