2024 Hall of Fame Inductee: Katelyn Falgowski Ginolfi

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – During the next two months, USA Field Hockey will be celebrating and honoring the 2024 Hall of Fame inductees prior to the celebration, hosted by the U.S. Field Hockey Foundation.
Three-time Olympian Katelyn Falgowski Ginolfi has one of the most decorated playing careers for the U.S. Women’s National Team after having competed in 261 international matches for Team USA. She joined the USWNT in 2005, when she was just 15 years old, and instantly earned respectful recognition as a wise athlete beyond her years.

Katelyn grew up in Landenberg, Pa., and started playing the sport in 1998. She was a four-year letter winner at St. Marks High School and also played for the club team, Strikers. After only playing for five years, she landed a spot on the U.S. U-20 Women’s National Team, making her the youngest player named to the squad at just 14 years old. It did not take long for her talent to get recognized by the USWNT head coach and just a year later, she found herself on the senior roster.

When she was just a senior in high school, Katelyn’s was selected to the roster to compete at the 2006 Hockey World Cup in Madrid, Spain. As the youngest USA athlete named at just 17 years old, she aided in the USWNT’s sixth place finish.

Katelyn played collegiately at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a four-year starter and two-time captain for the Tar Heels. She helped lead the Tar Heels to two NCAA National Championships (2007, 2009), two NCAA Runner-Ups (2010, 2011) and two Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) titles (2007, 2011), along with many personal accolades.

After her freshman fall season, she took the spring semester off to train with the USWNT full-time and helped the squad qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. She missed the start of her sophomore season after being named to the Olympic roster.

In Katelyn’s senior college season she helped USA to a gold medal and Olympic berth at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. She did this all while playing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) to shut down Argentina’s top player in the final. The victory was USA’s first over perennial power Argentina since 1987 and Katelyn’s performance earned her Player of the Game honors. She was also named to the 2011 World All-Star team, the only USA player on the 18-member squad and nominated for the 2011 FIH Young Player of the Year Award.

After college and less than five months after surgery to repair her ACL, Katelyn moved to the West Coast to train with the USWNT full-time in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games. She was selected to represent USA and following a disappointing finish, Team USA bounced back a few months later at the Champions Challenge I in Dublin, Ireland earning silver.

In 2013, she was on the squad that helped USA place at the FIH Hockey World League Semifinals, which earned them a 2014 Rabobank Hockey World Cup berth. Katelyn was integral in the squad’s inspirational performance in the Netherlands beating higher world ranked teams and outlasting Australia in a semifinal shootout to narrowly miss out on a medal against their Pan American rivals, claiming fourth.

Mimicking their 2011 performance, Katelyn was part of the USA team that went undefeated at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, securing the squad qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. This was followed up by a fifth-place finish at the FIH Hockey World League Semifinals before a shocker of a performance at the 2016 Hockey Champions Trophy in London, England. As the lowest world ranked team, Katelyn assisted in impressive victories as well as a shootout win over Australia in the 3rd/4th place game to earn USA a medal. Continuing with that momentum, USA impressed the world that August at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games earning a historical fifth place finish.

Her expertise and leadership were integral in the USWNT’s gold-medal finish at the 2017 FIH Hockey World League Semifinals in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the team officially qualified for the 2018 Vitality Women’s Hockey World Cup in London.

“Katelyn is one of only three-time Olympians in field hockey and is a legend of the game,” said Simon Hoskins, USA Field Hockey’s Executive Director. “For more than a decade, the USWNT was centered around her consistently world class play in the middle of the turf. She is so deserving of her place in the USA Field Hockey Hall of Fame.”

Katelyn persevered through multiple setbacks and challenges during her international career earning six gold, three silver and two bronze medals. A three-time Olympian, competing in the Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, she is truly worthy of induction in the USA Field Hockey Hall of Fame. Join us as we celebrate and honor the 2024 Hall of Fame Inductees on Friday, May 24, 2024, at the 2024 Hall ofFame Celebration , hosted by the U.S. Field Hockey Foundation, at The Hyatt Regency Westlake in Westlake Village, Calif. Tickets can be purchased by clickinghere. An extended thank you goes to 2024 Hall of Fame sponsors AstroTurf and BeyondPulse .