Olivia Wingate
 Wingate with the North Carolina Courage in 2023 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | January 20, 2000 | ||
| Place of birth | Medford, Massachusetts, U.S. | ||
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | North Carolina Courage | ||
| Number | 20 | ||
| College career | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2018–2022 | Notre Dame | 95 | (26) |
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2023– | North Carolina Courage | 13 | (0) |
| International career | |||
| 2015–2016 | United States U16 | 6 | (2) |
| 2017 | United States U18 | 3 | (0) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 09:23, August 26, 2023 (UTC) | |||
Olivia Wingate (born January 20, 2000) is an American professional soccer player. She plays as a forward for the North Carolina Courage of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). A native of Wilmington, Massachusetts, she played five years of college soccer for Notre Dame. She was selected by the Courage sixth overall in the 2023 NWSL Draft.
Youth career
Wingate started playing soccer at age four. During her first year of high school in 2014–15, Wingate played at club level for the Massachusetts-based FC Stars of the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL), which won the Northeast regional conference with a record of 13–2–1. After recovering from a broken leg, as a sophomore she left FC Stars and joined her high school soccer team at Wilmington High School. She scored 12 goals in about ten games as a sophomore; as a junior, she scored 17 goals and had five assists in 13 games. The Wilmington Wildcats went undefeated in the regular season both years, going a combined 33–0–3 for two league titles, but made early exits from the 2015 and 2016 state tournaments. Wingate, known for her quickness from a young age, was twice named the Middlesex League Player of the Year.
A collision with an opposing goalkeeper, while playing for a club team in May 2017, led to a knee injury that required surgery and sidelined Wingate for more than a year (including all of her senior high school season), up until two weeks before her first college game.
College career
Wingate verbally committed to the University of Notre Dame as a high school sophomore in September 2015 and signed a letter of intent in February 2018. She played five years there on an athletic scholarship. In her first three seasons, she played in all of Notre Dame's 40 games, scoring five goals. She "upped her game" as a senior in 2021, with seven goals and five assists in 22 starts. With an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)–leading shot accuracy of 0.640, she was named to the All-ACC third team. She scored twice in the NCAA tournament: an equalizer in the second round versus Purdue and another in their third-round loss to Arkansas.
Wingate was "much more of a complete player" by her fifth season, elevating her finishing and movement. In 2022, she led her team in shots and was second in goals (14) and assists (5) in 23 games. On September 1, she scored a hat trick against Wisconsin, with three goals all in the second half, and was awarded ACC Player of the Week honors. She received the honors again the week of October 11 after scoring twice and assisting twice across two wins over NC State and Florida State. She was named first-team All-ACC and third-team All-American. She scored three goals in the NCAA tournament to help Notre Dame reach the Elite Eight before losing to eventual finalists North Carolina.
Professional career
The North Carolina Courage had multiple first-round picks in the 2023 NWSL Draft; Wingate said she expected to her name to be called in one of their later first-round spots, but at sixth overall, she was the team's first selection. She signed with the Courage through 2025. She made her NWSL debut for the Courage on April 1, 2023, as a substitute in the season opener versus the Kansas City Current.
Wingate made her first NWSL goal on June 14, 2023, scoring the 2–1 game winner off a Haley Hopkins pass in the 92nd minute in a Challenge Cup match versus the Washington Spirit.
International career
Wingate first trained with the United States national under-16 team at a camp in Carson, California, in February 2015. In May 2016, she played three games for the under-16 team, and scored two goals, in the first women's edition of the Tournament of Nations (Torneo delle Nazioni) in Gradisca d'Isonzo, Italy. In September 2016, she played another three games in an under-16 tournament in the Netherlands. She continued representing the United States with the under-18 team on a three-game tour of England in February 2017.
Personal life
Wingate was born in Medford, Massachusetts, the second of four children of Carol and Steven Wingate. She grew up in nearby Wilmington from age five. She played multiple sports growing up besides soccer, such as softball, basketball, and ice hockey. She played one season of ice hockey for her high school team as a forward, leading the team with about 20 goals, though they went 2–17–1.
The Wilmington Town Crier, Wingate's hometown newspaper, twice named her "Female Athlete of the Year" (2016 and 2022) and named her "Female Athlete of the Decade" for the 2010s.