Wonder Woman of the Week: Gwendolyn Oxenham

Three years and twenty-five countries defined one woman’s life. The athlete graduated college, thinking her sport was behind her. She there was a yearning however, a passion that refused to subside; and just when most of us lesser mortals would give into our parents “Get a job! Start a family!” etc., Gwendolyn Oxenham hatched an impossible idea- to quit everything and follow her dream. Author, athlete, and documentarian Gwendolyn Oxenham is the Wonder Woman of the Week.

Side note: Ms. Oxenham, if you’re reading this- I’m currently half-way through your book, and oh man is it amazing. I have notes and scribbles and reminders for my soccer study written all over it- taking notes on how great you are at writing this thing. Okay, now onto the non-fangirling part.

Gwendolyn Oxenham graduated high school at sixteen. As a teenager, she was already smarter than this blogger. She became the youngest athlete at Duke- playing soccer- and became the university’s third leading scorer. [1] Oxenham graduated before her 21st birthday, leaving her NCAA days behind her. She was going to become a professional player, but overnight, the US women’s soccer league dissolved- leaving all professional women out on the street. [2]

Oxenham started gradschool after briefly playing in a Brazil team, majoring in Creative Writing, but something in her refused to subside- her love for the game. Oxenham met with a friend and former teammate and hatched a scheme: travel the world, playing soccer. The idea consumed them until they decided to make it a reality. After navigating the obstacles of academia (I can attest from my experience conducting an independent study, there are a lot of them) the study began to take shape. Oxenham invited her boyfriend to join- another former soccer player. They acquired a cameraman, managed to receive grants, and called in favors from friends and family. Finally, the plane took off at dawn and the four twenty-somethings, refusing to give up on their love for soccer- took off to conduct the most significant anthropological study of the world’s most popular sport. [3]

The four-person crew traveled the globe, visiting twenty-three countries over the course of three years. Their goal was to find pick-up games of soccer, documenting through ink and video the universal languages of soccer. They played in a prison in Bolivia, a ghetto in Argentina; with women in hijabs in Iran, and with llama herders in Peru. Upon return, the film-makers sold out stadiums when they premiered the film in Washington DC, LA, and Kansas City. [4]

The MFA in Creative Writing paid off. Not just for her book, but for her post-study career as well. Gwendolyn Oxenham is now a leading figure in soccer journalism. In all my research on the 2015 Women’s World Cup, I run across articles by Oxenham at least once per day. (I have to add that she also contacted me after I emailed her asking for tips on how to write about the WWC during my study. Thanks for the help!!!!!) She told me she thought of herself as an athlete before her role as a woman- something the media just can’t quite grasp. With more journalists like Oxenham however, the women in soccer stand a chance to get the equal respect they deserve as athletes. She’s an expert athlete, a powerful writer, and she’s the Wonder Woman of the Week; Gwendolyn Oxenham.

Christie, Nick and Greenwald, Brody. “No smalltown girl: Oxenham leavs H.S. after 3 years.” 28 Sept 2000. The Chronicle. Accessed 24 June 2015. http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2000/09/29/no-smalltown-girl-oxenham-leaves-hs-after-3-years#.VYtPhe1Viko

“Finding the Game.” 2014. Macmillan Publishers. Accessed 24 June 2015. http://us.macmillan.com/findingthegame/gwendolynoxenham

Oxenham, Gwendolyn. “Finding the Game; Three Years, Twenty-Three Countries, and the Search for the Game.” 2012. St. Martin’s Press. New York City.

“Q&A: Luke Bougen and Gwendolyn Oxenham.” 17 Sept 2010. MLSSoccer.com. Accessed 24 June 2015. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/qa-luke-boughen-and-gwendolyn-oxenham