Northern Arizona University Athletics issued the following announcement on July 28.
The dream of becoming an Olympian became a reality for Northern Arizona soccer head coach Kylie Louw at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England.
Louw became a member of the South African national team in 2006, and was nominated as the "South African Player of the Year" in 2010. Two years later, alongside her teammates, South Africa qualified for the Olympics for the first time in team history.
As a young girl, Louw dedicated most of her time to improving her soccer skills and taking the right steps to put herself in the best position of achieving her goals.
"It's a dream, but it's also hard work. From a very young age, I was in the national team and the core group, so it was a team dream to make it to the Olympics because it would have been the first time we did that for our country," Louw said. "It was an incredible feeling once we did, I helped out on some penalty kicks to help us qualify."
The road to qualifying for the 2012 Olympics, and getting to that place was a long one, and gave Louw a lot to take away and apply to her career today and for years to come.
While all the work paid off once she reached the games in London, Louw said there's more to be done even after reaching your goal.
"You can prepare and prepare for your entire life for one thing, and you can either go and make it or break it. Some of that is in your control and some of it isn't," Louw said. "I felt like I performed very well and my takeaway was if you really want to go and do something and get there, it's more than that."
Louw added that the next step is to make a difference once you've reached the point you were striving toward.
"A lot of times we have a goal of getting somewhere, and then you get there and then what? I never just wanted to go to the Olympics, I wanted to go to the Olympics and win and perform," Louw said.
Louw takes away a lot from her time as not only an Olympic athlete, but also as a part of South Africa's national team. She uses her experience and knowledge that she gained in her everyday coaching and interactions with her players.
"I think the biggest thing for me is to enjoy the reward. Life is hard, soccer can be hard, performing is difficult. The ride to play in the Olympics is a very difficult one, and I feel like life is the same way," Louw said. "Soccer is a team sport, but you have to have accountability to do whatever you can for your team to go above and beyond, give your team something more than maybe just the average person is doing."
Original source can be found here.
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