How Courtney Dauwalter “pain cave” film helped inspire US women to Olympic soccer gold

The inspiring Courtney Dauwalter video we featured here on RUN247 last month has already had a major impact outside of trail running.

The ultra running GOAT achieved the unprecedented treble of 100-mile wins at Western States, Hardrock and then UTMB in 2023.

And the film from her sponsors Salomon, titled ‘A Team Sport’ and directed by Alexis Berg and Julien Raison, celebrated that achievement.

It’s embedded below and well worth 15 minutes of anyone’s time.

From Team Dauwalter to Team US

Clearly the United States’ women’s soccer coach Emma Hayes is a big fan as she repeatedly referenced it on their incredible run to their first Olympics gold medal since London 2012.

Her USWNT team constantly had to dig deep to progress in France – they needed extra time to beat Japan 1-0 in the quarter-finals and then another additional 30 minutes before overcoming Germany by the same score in the semi-finals.

And in between those games legendary former Chelsea coach Hayes, who only took charge three months before, sat her squad down to watch the video.

In particular it was the section where US star Dauwalter talks about constructing a pain cave and making it a little bit bigger each time she has to visit it.

‘The pain cave in this team is so deep’

She explained it as follows: “That’s when your mind takes over. And you dig in with your brain to help your body keep going. My goal is to get to the pain cave and go in and make it bigger, with hopes that every time I make it bigger, I can reach a little farther into myself next time.”

After the semi-final success against Germany, Hayes wrote on her Instagram page: “The pain cave in this team is so deep. Guts and heart are never underrated in my world. This is a special group of people and I am soooooooo impressed.”

The team would go all the way by winning the final against Brazil, also by a 1-0 scoreline, though this time without the need for extra time.