Chloe Humphrey, USA lacrosse attacker, World Lacrosse Women’s Championship Tokyo; poised to anchor USA to fifth title
Exclusive - Meet USA’s Chloe Humphrey, the next big thing in women’s lacrosse
Exclusive - Meet USA’s Chloe Humphrey, the next big thing in women’s lacrosse
The 21-year-old attacker, currently starring for the four-time defending champions USA at the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship in Tokyo, is just getting started, according to the player in an interview with Olympics.com.
Chloe Humphrey is often called things like “future lacrosse GOAT”, but seems unfazed by the labels, as flattered as she is by them.
Signs of future greatness for a 21-year-old who is arguably already great.
“I honestly don’t feel a ton of pressure just because I know that there’s so much talent around me, that it kind of takes a load off of an individual player, which is really special,” Humphrey said in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com during the 24 July-2 August World Lacrosse Women’s Championship in Tokyo, where the United States have safely reached the semi-finals.
“I think there’s so much excitement around (the Olympics). Obviously I’m going to have to work my butt off to get to that point and to be placed on that roster, and nothing is going to be given and I know it has to be earned.
“So I definitely am just going to train as hard as I can and look to my teammates for some support, and I’m going to give them everything that I have as well. And we’re just doing this together - like I think that this is just a journey that we’re all going to take on together.
“And it’s just so exciting to be a part of.”
Japan rout Czechia 21-5 in World Lacrosse Women’s Championship opener
World Lacrosse Women’s Championship Tokyo 2026: All results and scores
World Lacrosse Women’s Championship Tokyo 2026: Preview
Chloe Humphrey (1) is well on her way to leading USA to a fifth consecutive world championship and 10th overall in Tokyo.
Chloe Humphrey - “Born with a lacrosse stick”
Humphrey says she “was basically born with a lacrosse stick.” She is from a big U.S. lacrosse town in Darien, Connecticut, and both of her older sisters, Nicole and Ashley , were collegiate standouts Chloe played with at the University of North Carolina in 2025.
Together, they helped the Tar Heels to a 22-0 record and won the national title.
Boasting a seemingly bottomless pit of stamina, Chloe also became the first freshman in history, male or female, to win the Tewaaraton Award, which is given to the top player in the country after scoring a record 90 goals.
That summer, she suited up for the U.S., and helped the team to gold at the Pan-American Championship and the World Games, the latter using the Olympic competition format of the sixes for LA28 .
Humphrey missed out on back-to-back NCAA championships this season - when she recorded an NCAA single-season record of 109 goals - but is taking it in stride. “Really exciting for me, just to experience both the winning side and the losing side and just have that whole perspective. You get both sides of how you’d like a season to end and how you fear it ends,” she said.
The lacrosse prodigy has been on fire at her first worlds in Japan.
While the world championship is a field competition unlike the Games, this tournament is a viable prognosticator for what awaits in LA two summers from now. USA are the four-time defending world champions, and they have been an absolute juggernaut in Tokyo, winning four of four with a plus goal difference of 70 through the quarter-finals.
“Obviously my focus right now is on the world championship and we’re looking to bring back another gold to the United States,” Humphrey said. “So that really is all of our main focus right now but it is really cool that the Olympics are just around the corner.
“Like I remember two years ago I’d say four years and it seemed like it was so far away but now we’re two years away. So that’s really cool that it’s coming sooner than we’ll know it but definitely focusing on the world championship right now with my team.”
A lot of eyes will be on Humphrey on the road to LA28. She does not mind.
Chloe Humphrey on winning LA28 gold: “That’s the dream right there”
The entire lacrosse community is banking on the LA28 Olympics being a game-changer for their sport, especially the U.S. players.
While Charlotte North, currently working her way back from a torn Achilles she suffered less than two months ago, remains the rock for the USA and the wider sport, a lot is being pinned on Humphrey’s shoulders ahead to 2028.
Some say she could have an impact on lacrosse the way UNC alum Mia Hamm had on football, once upon a time. But the player is OK with grand expectations since there was a period when her dream of taking part in the Olympics seemed it might not happen.
Now, should Humphrey stay on her current trajectory, it would be a shock to all if she were not on the roster for LA, where she might be able to meet her idol and rugby sevens star, Ilona Maher .
“I remember playing sports when I was younger and I told my mom I want to be in the Olympics and it kind of just seemed so unrealistic at that point, especially as I started to take the lacrosse path because I also was a soccer and basketball player,” Humphrey said.
“She kind of laughed and was like, ‘All right, good luck’ because when you hear of an Olympic athlete, this is the best of the best. So now for lacrosse to be in that conversation is just so incredible, how far the sport has come.
“I still I get goosebumps thinking about lacrosse being in the Olympics and potentially being an Olympian which is every athlete’s dream so it’s really cool just for lacrosse to get to experience that.
“That’s the dream right there, being able to win the first Olympic gold medal in lacrosse - I don’t know if it’s the first but obviously the first in a substantial amount of time. But to win that gold medal in the United States with your best friends to your right and left, I truly think that is the best point you can get to as an athlete.
“So that’s definitely the dream and it’s just even more special that it’s on American turf.”
Picture by 2026 Getty Images
24 July - 2 August
Lacrosse | Women’s Championship | Tokyo | Japan
Lacrosse makes its Olympic comeback for LA 2028
Lacrosse is set to return to the Olympics at LA 2028 as a medal sport for the first time since 1908. American Charlotte North is one of the standout stars of the game, and speaks one-on-one with host Nick McCarvel about how the Olympic platform could help lacrosse grow, and why she thinks the sport is so well-suited for the Games.