Ashlyn Harris says life with Sophia Bush feels like coming home, a feeling she is leaning into while she works through what came after soccer. The retired U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper, who stepped away from the game in 2022, said she has been doing a lot of healing after spending years putting the sport above everything else.
That candid reflection is drawing attention now because Harris is speaking publicly while Gamechangers: The Ashlyn Harris Story streams on Roku. The two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion did not frame retirement as a victory lap. She framed it as recovery, saying, “Chasing greatness was awesome, but it cost me a lot,” and adding that she and Sophia Bush have found peace together.
Harris, now 38, began playing soccer at age 5 and went on to play at the University of North Carolina before turning professional. For years, she was one of the most recognizable goalkeepers in American soccer, a player whose public image was built on medals, saves and championships. In the documentary, though, she pushes back on the easy version of an athlete’s life. “We filter too much success when it comes to sports and athletes,” she said. “We always show the highlight reels.”
The film and Harris’ comments show the price behind that reel. She said she did not have a childhood because of what soccer demanded, and that she missed birthday parties, weddings and funerals while chasing greatness. She also said, “I have a lot of healing to do from chasing success and greatness for my entire life,” and, “There’s a huge part of me that was stolen.” Those lines give the project its edge: it is part self-portrait, part reckoning with what elite sport took away.
Gamechangers revisits the harder corners of Harris’ childhood, including her parents fighting, money problems, going to bars in sixth grade and huffing. That backstory helps explain why the documentary lands as more than nostalgia. Harris is now a mother to Sloane and Ocean with ex-wife and former teammate Ali Krieger, and the shift in her life is plain: the former goalkeeper is no longer chasing championships for a living, but trying to build a life that feels whole. The unfinished question is not whether she won enough. It is what healing looks like after a career built on never letting up.
