Beth Yeager Selected To U.S. Olympic Field Hockey Team

Beth Yeager didn't exactly get a good night's sleep Sunday. Not with what she knew was coming first thing Monday.

She might not have slept well Monday night, though for different reasons. This time, she might have been too excited.

Yeager got the news early Monday that she'd dreamed about, for this past year when she took off from Princeton and for the entire time she's played the sport of field hockey: She is now officially a member of the United States Olympic Team.

"It's been pretty stressful," she said after she got the news. "The coaches weren't making any promises to anyone. I feel very grateful to my coaches and teammates and all the people who've been supporting me. My first reaction was that I was relieved. Being excited settled in after that."

Yeager has been a member of the U.S. Women's National Team since her senior year in high school. She then played her first two seasons at Princeton, earning first-team All-American honors both years while also being a Honda Award finalist as a sophomore.

She withdrew from school this year to compete in the Olympic qualifying events (she will be back in school this fall and will be one of Princeton's captains). The U.S. team, who missed the last Olympic Games, finished second in the Pan Am Games to Argentina, who won the automatic bid by winning the championship.

This left the Americans in need of earning its spot through the last qualifying tournaments, which in their case was in India, where the team reached the finals, earning one of the three spots from that event.

Yeager was a key part of that 16-team squad, but it didn't guarantee her a spot on the Olympic team. The final evaluations came the last three weeks at the FIH Pro League in Belgium and England, and Yeager scored twice in those games.

"The full centralized group of 28 athletes have worked exceptionally hard this year and made the final selection difficult," said USA head coach David Passmore. "While the results weren't what we wanted during the European leg of FIH Hockey Pro League, we have diligently reviewed video and performance analysis while choosing a group of athletes we feel can push for a quarterfinal berth in Paris."

The American team will begin its final training in Charlotte June 17 and then will head first to Ireland for more training and scrimmaging against Japan and some club teams. Then it will be into the Olympic Village before its first game in Pool B on July 27 against Argentina. The other Pool B teams are Australia, Great Britain, Spain and South Africa.

"The initial emotion is overwhelming," Yeager says. "When we qualified for the Olympics, it was kind of a state of shock. This is a little different. This was a little more relief and gratitude. And then excitement.

Yeager is the fifth Princeton field hockey player to reach the Olympic Games, following Katie Reinprecht (2012, 2016), Julia Reinprecht (2012, 2016), Kat Sharkey (2016) and Michelle Cesan (2012 alternate).

"We're so proud of Beth and so excited for her," says Princeton head coach Carla Tagliente. "She's such a great teammate in addition to being a great player, and she is so deserving of this amazing opportunity."

Field hockey competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be held at the Yves-Du-Manoir Stadium, which also hosted track and field during the 1924 Olympics.The stadium is located in the city of Colombes – located about five-and-a-half miles west of the Olympic Village. Women's field hockey joined the Olympic program in 1980. College field hockey plays an instrumental role in Team USA's development on the world stage; in history, Team USA has had nearly 70 college field hockey Olympians from 23 different schools.

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