Gold medalists do not have to stop at one victory, former Mountaineers Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence will be looking to prove this summer.
As third-time members of Team Canada’s women’s soccer team, Buchanan and Lawrence will be the first WVU alumni to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Since being named to the Canada senior team, the pair has won two Olympic medals- a 2016 bronze medal in Rio and a 2021 gold medal in Tokyo- as well as the Four Nations Tournament in 2015 and Algarve Cup in 2016.
Both players have also earned the title of Canadian Player of the Year, with Buchanan winning the award in 2015, 2017, and 2020 and Lawrence winning it in 2019.
The duo has been together a long time, spanning from youth club football for Brampton Brams United and Erin Mills, South Carolina to three Olympic appearances. On the two’s shared journey, the pair stopped in Morgantown for a four-year career with the Mountaineers.
Buchanan and Lawrence won three Big 12 Championships together with the Mountaineers. Lawrence and Buchanan won the conference’s offensive and defensive MVP awards respectively in the 2014 and 2016 seasons together. In 2013, Buchanan won the defensive MVP award alongside teammate Frances Silva.
The pair played under the direction of legendary WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown and account for two of Izzo-Brown’s 40 professional players she coached at WVU as well as seven of 60 All-America team selections by one of Izzo-Brown’s players.
In 2016, the same year that Buchanan and Lawrence would represent Canada with a bronze medal finish in Rio De Janeiro, the pair led WVU to its best season in program history. The Mountaineers reached the ranking of No. 1 during the year, never falling lower than No. 7, and finished as runner-ups in the NCAA College Cup. Buchanan was named the espnW National Player of the Year and the Hermann Trophy winner.
Buchanan and Lawrence have since played for different teams professionally, namely Lyon and Chelsea for Buchanan and Paris Saint-Germain for Lawrence. Every four years, though, the pair reunites on the biggest stage in global athletics, and they will do so this year in efforts of defending their gold medalist titles.
Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence will represent WVU and Team Canada starting Sunday at 11 a.m. ET as Canada takes on New Zealand in Paris. The match can be watched on Peacock or on the NBC Olympics app by signing in with a TV provider.
Photo from WVU Women’s Soccer
