Mary Virginia Harvey (born June 4, 1965) is an American retired soccer

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. She was the starting goalie for

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

U.S. Women's National Team which won the inaugural

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gove ...

; and a member of the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal team. Harvey retired from international competition in 1996 following the Atlanta Olympics.

Early life

Berkeley

Harvey earned her undergraduate degree from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

and her

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

's Anderson School of Management.

Playing career

After graduating, Harvey played semi-professional soccer in Europe. She represented

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successfu ...

of Germany between 1988 and 1991, as well as Hammarby IF and

Tyresö FF Tyresö Fotbollsförening is a Sweden, Swedish association football, football club in Tyresö, a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Stockholm County. The club was founded in 1971 and is primarily known for its main women's team, which compe ...

of Sweden in 1993 and 1994 respectively. After making her debut against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

in 1989, Harvey won 27

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles ( 1991, 1999, 2015, an ...

. Her last appearance came in 1996 against Australia.

Sports administration career

Off the field, Harvey served on U.S. Soccer's board of directors for 12 years, including 5 years on the Executive Committee; and on the U.S. Olympic Committee."Mary Harvey, SportsAccord, 2007."Mary Harvey", AYSO. In 2003, Harvey was hired by FIFA to become its Director of Development, becoming the first woman and first American hired by the international governing body to run a division. In this role, Harvey was responsible for managing the US$160 million per year development budget for FIFA, including such programs as the Financial Assistance Program, the Goal Programme, and FIFA's education or course programs. She was also responsible for FIFA's activities to develop women's football, futsal and beach soccer, and to oversee FIFA's sports medicine activities. Mary was involved in the reform process at FIFA and launched the #WomeninFIFA campaign with Australian Moya Dodd. The campaign was successful in achieving gender inclusion as a core tenet of the reforms passed in 2016. Prior to joining FIFA, Harvey was the CEO of a US$15 million sports and fitness company, and worked in the management consulting industry for both Deloitte. and Accenture. In 2008, Harvey left FIFA to return to her native United States to become the chief operating officer for

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

, the new women's professional soccer league in the United States. Harvey left WPS in 2010 after two seasons. In 2017, Harvey joined the bid team to bring the 2026 FIFA World Cup to North America. Harvey was responsible for writing the United 2026 Human Rights Strategy, the first of its kind for a mega-sporting-event. The 2026 FIFA World Cup was awarded to Canada, Mexico and the United States at the 2018 FIFA Congress in Moscow. Mary has served as a sport envoy for the US State Department’s Sports Diplomacy Division on several occasions, including missions to Iraq, Jordan, Canada and Mexico. Mary also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Green Sports Alliance, an organisation dedicated to leveraging the cultural and market influence of sports to inspire sports leagues, teams, venues, their partners and millions of fans to embrace renewable energy, healthy food, recycling, water efficiency, species preservation, safer chemicals and other environmentally preferable practices. She is currently the chief executive of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights – a human rights organisation for the world of sport.

Honors and awards

Harvey's honors include: *US Soccer Werner Fricker Award (2016); *Hall of Fame, United States Olympic Committee (1996 Olympic Team); *Medal of Honor, U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame (1991 Women's World Cup Team); * National Goalkeeper of the year (1986); *Hall of Fame, Cal Athletics (2000); *Hall of Fame, American Youth Soccer Organization (2003)

References

External links

*
Cal Bears player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Mary 1965 births Living people Olympic gold medalists for the United States in soccer Women's Olympic soccer players of the United States California Golden Bears women's soccer players United States women's international soccer players Expatriate women's footballers in Germany FSV Frankfurt (women) players 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players Damallsvenskan players Hammarby Fotboll (women) players Tyresö FF players FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players American women's soccer players Women's association football goalkeepers Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics