Alex Morgan off USA Olympics women's squad as era ends - ESPN

Alex Morgan has been left off the United States women's national team's 2024 Olympic roster, marking the team's first major tournament without the star forward since the 2008 Olympics, before she debuted for the team.

USWNT head coach Emma Hayes named her 18-player roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday, calling upon 10 players who participated in last year's World Cup.

Morgan, who turns 35 next week, is not among them.

Morgan's 224 caps and 123 goals are each the most among active U.S. players, and rank ninth and fifth, respectively, in program history.

«Making an Olympic roster is a huge privilege and an honor and there is no denying that it was an extremely competitive process among the players and that there were difficult choices, especially considering how hard everyone has worked over the past 10 months,» Hayes said in a statement.

Midfielder Catarina Macario and forward Mallory Swanson both made the USWNT's Olympic roster after missing last year's World Cup due to major injuries.

Hayes' roster includes several veterans, including goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, captain and midfielder Lindsey Horan, and Crystal Dunn — who is listed as a forward, not a defender — making their third Olympic rosters.

Hayes formally assumed her USWNT coaching role late last month after accepting the job in November. She hopes to guide the USWNT to its first Olympic gold medal since the 2012 London Games.

The Americans are looking to bounce back from their worst finish in a major tournament after exiting the 2023 World Cup in the round of 16.

The average age of the USWNT's Olympic roster is 26.8 years old, per U.S. Soccer, the youngest at an Olympics since 2008 and four years younger on average than the team's previous Olympic