A nice quiet summer in the mountains of Utah with a solid sprinkling of soccer mixed in sounds highly attractive to Sudbury native Cloe Lacasse.
Considering the fact that the past nine months would see Lacasse and the Canadian women’s soccer team become one of the biggest stories of the 2024 Paris Olympics, giving way to a leap halfway across the world to follow her professional soccer dreams, and closing things off with the first major injury of her career - well, yes, a quieter 2025 would do just fine, thank you.
For as much as the drone spying episode brought a whole lot of unwanted attention to Lacasse and Team Canada last summer, the 31 years old had no issue whatsoever with her own personal on-field experience.
In fact, by and large, Lacasse would walk away quite pleased, her head held high.
“It was a definite whirlwind,” said the first time Olympian. “I was so proud to be able to represent Canada - but then everything that happened made it so crazy. In terms of my personal performance, I was proud to get a goal at the Olympics. That was special.”
In fact, Lacasse would net the first Canadian goal in Paris, helping her team string together three straight wins and qualify for the playoffs despite having six points deducted for the coaching staff drone fiasco.
“I thought that it was really cool, given our situation, to see just how many other Canadian athletes reached out to us and expressed their support,” she said. “It was pretty cool to see that national pride, athletes telling us that they had our backs.”
For as much as a quarter-final loss to Germany in penalty kicks was not the way that Lacasse wanted the event to end, the magnitude of what the young woman who had come from the outer periphery of the national team radar to donning the maple leaf at the Olympics had accomplished will always be cherished.
“I think I only really realized what I had achieved the moment when I scored that first goal,” said Lacasse. “It probably took me about two minutes in that game (vs New Zealand) to realize what had happened. I was playing probably the worst two minutes of my life.”
With the Games behind her, it was time to turn her attention back to Arsenal, the top-end team who had signed the Canadian sharp-shooter in the summer of 2023, luring her away from Benfica in Portugal.
“Just before the Olympics, there was a really serious family matter and it kind of put things into perspective,” explained Lacasse, who with the blessings of her European pro club would return to North America, inking a three year contract with the Utah Royals of the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) in the summer of 2024.
“Being in Europe, I am so far away from my family. If there’s an emergency, I can’t be there for them. And it’s also about having them there for me, having their support in the challenging times.”
Family aside, there were more than a few other pragmatic realities to playing in Utah that clearly appealed to the product of the Sudbury Canadians program who had starred in the American midwest during her four year NCAA career with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“In the States, they emphasize more the physical component and the athletic component,” noted Lacasse. “In Europe, it’s more tactical, more technical. I was lucky enough to grow up within the North American system so I had those athletic and physical attributes. In fact, part of the reason I went to Europe was to gain that tactical and technical ability and awareness.”
Away from the pitch, making the move from London (England) to Salt Lake City was not a tough sell for Lacasse.
“Honestly, I’ve always enjoyed living in places where there is mountain biking and hiking and outdoor activities,” suggested the two-time OFSAA gold medal winner who launched her professional career in Iceland and immediately fell in love with the country where she would spend four wonderful years.
“I’m not really a city gal that likes to shop and do all of the things that a city has to give. I didn’t really know much about Salt Lake City, but after researching it, I kind of knew it fit the criteria that I enjoy.”
A mid-season addition to a team that had struggled early in the year, Lacasse very quickly hit her stride. On October 13th (2024), she netted the first hat trick in team history, leading the Utah Royals to a 3-0 win over the Seattle Reign. By the end of October, her season was done, victim of a ruptured ACL.
“The club had made some really good summer signings, bringing in some international players that made all the difference, to be honest,” she said. “It was a really exciting time to be part of this project.”
For the moment, her rehab going very well, Lacasse focuses on the year ahead, drawing on her ability to overcome adversity, a character trait that she had no problem developing while pursuing her Olympic dream for so many years, without a sniff of attention from the national team.
“For me, it’s always been about focusing on what you can control,” said Lacasse. “That’s what I’ve done my whole career. As soon as the injury happened, I was focused on what’s next: the surgery, the rehab and all of that. Things are progressing quickly.”
“I just want to get back on the pitch. I want to play.”
And if the next nine months have a little less drama in store for the graduate of Ecole secondaire Macdonald-Cartier, she is fine with that too.
