WASHINGTON — Crystal Dunn hasn't cried as much as she thought she would since she announced her retirement in January . But when U.S. Soccer honored her career ahead of the U.S. women's national team's friendly against Spain at Audi Field on Saturday, the 34-year-old opted for a slick pair of dark sunglasses while speaking to the media.
"I'm wearing my shades today for a reason because I'm going to be tearing up," Dunn, a World Cup and an Olympic champion, said.
It's less about her own emotions; Dunn has been at peace with her decision and has enjoyed having autonomy over her schedule, a luxury she hasn't quite enjoyed as an adult. She's been saying "yes" to a lot of things — "projects that are pushing the game forward," she says — nearly to the point of inundation.
In July, Dunn joined the ownership group of USL W League club Tallahassee Reckoning, part of her effort to "build a better infrastructure for young girls to have a better future, have a better pathway to the collegiate level (and) the pro level."
Rather, it is the special moments she shares with fans since she stepped away from the game as a player — interactions she knew she would have at a sold-out Audi Field during one of the most anticipated matches this year in women's football — that would trigger the waterworks. People have been telling her, with tears in their own eyes, how sad they are that she's no longer playing. That she was their favorite player.
"I do think that this is why we play," she said. "Of course I was chasing championships, medals, all of the above, but I think now looking back, I get to realize that just me being out there was enough. Me just putting my best foot forward, really working hard to achieve something, even if I fell short, was enough."
Dunn's career has been remembered as much for her extraordinary accomplishments at the club and international levels as it has the lingering question of how much brightly she could have shone if she'd played her desired position of midfield more consistently.
Even as a fullback, the position she was often assigned on the USWNT, Dunn remains one of the best defenders in program history. She has been vocal about her struggles with wanting to serve in one role on the pitch even as she continued to excel in another on the national team. Coupled with her openness about the importance of representation as one of the longer-tenured Black U.S. players, Dunn's legacy has also been defined by her unapologetic self-determination.
Dunn can now enjoy the fruits of that labor, too. Players such as Sophia Wilson, Trinity Rodman, Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, Lily Yohannes, Michelle Cooper, Phallon Tullis-Joyce, and Kennedy Wesley joined the national team over the course of and after her playing career — and perhaps because of it.
"I'm just really happy that any hardship I had, I feel like they are going through something way less," she said. "They get to show up in this environment, their most authentic selves. They get to breathe a little bit easier."
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
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