05 December 2020

Two-time Olympic soccer champion Rachel Van Hollebeke now a doctor treating Covid-19 patients

Former US soccer star Rachel Van Hollebeke has spoken about the challenges she now faces as a medic treating coronavirus patients.

The 35 year-old, who earned 113 caps for her country before retiring from professional soccer in 2015, is now working as a family medicine resident at a hospital in San Diego.

Despite the ‘challenges’ she is facing, she confirmed that the job has ‘reaffirmed her passion for medicine’.

"It’s an interesting time to be a resident and to be in medicine in general, but it makes us realize how important medical care and public health and all of those things are,” Van Hollebeke told Good Morning America.

During her soccer career she won two Olympic gold medals at Beijing in 2008 and in London four years later, and was part of the squad who earned a silver medal at the 2011 World Cup.

After retiring she began medical school at UC San Diego School of Medicine before graduating in 2019.

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