For Jaedyn Shaw, becoming a professional soccer player was always the goal. “My mind was always like, I want to play at the highest level,” Shaw tells Her Campus in an exclusive interview. Shaw has spent the majority of her life focused on becoming “the best soccer player ever,” but her drive to make it as a pro athlete didn’t come without a bit of sacrifice.
To give her all to the sport, Shaw spent her high school years homeschooled. After graduating in 2022, she decided against going to college to focus on playing professional soccer. “I just wasn’t great in school. I wanted to play pro soccer,” she says. “Once I knew that I could hang at this level and play and do it day in and day out and be impactful, I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Not going the traditional education route did give Shaw a bit of FOMO over the years, but looking back, she doesn’t regret the things that have led her to where she is today. “I know that all the sacrifices that I made were worth it,” she says. At just 17, Shaw made her debut in the National Women’s Soccer League with the San Diego Wave, scoring 28 minutes into her first game. At 19 years old, Shaw became the youngest member and first Vietnamese American to represent the United States Women’s National Soccer Team. “Everything that I put in was worth it, and I’m going to continue to make decisions that are going to lead towards my goals,” she says.
Shaw’s hard work and determination to achieve greatness as a pro soccer player helped her land a spot on the USWNT for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, during which her team won gold. But ahead of all of the thrill and excitement that came with winning the top medal, Shaw was met with an unexpected surprise. “I got injured the day before the first [Olympic Women’s soccer] game, so I didn’t get to play at all,” she says. “But it was definitely a huge learning experience, having been the youngest on the team, having been injured, not being able to play.”
Despite her injury, Shaw was still there to cheer on her team when they defeated Brazil in the gold medal match. “I didn’t really believe it at first,” she says. “I think because I didn’t play, I was like, ‘What do you mean? I have a gold medal?’ It was a really cool, full-circle moment.”
Looking to the future, Shaw has her eyes set on competing on even more international stages, like the World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. But whatever she accomplishes next, Shaw wants to continue giving her all to soccer. “I want to make this sport better than I found it and be an impact in that way,” she says. “I think that I can use soccer to do that for me.”
And for those aspiring athletes who want to make careers out of their sports, Shaw urges you to believe in yourself and go after new opportunities. “I always bet on myself, and I always made decisions based off of belief in myself, knowing that I’m going to put in the work to get to where I want to go,” she says. “Believe in yourself, bet on yourself — and literally, do what you want.”