03/11/26 08:53:00
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03/11 05:00 CDT Ten months after her heart stopped during a game, Angel City's
Savy King returns to the pitch
Ten months after her heart stopped during a game, Angel City's Savy King
returns to the pitch
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Soccer Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --- That Savy King not only survived a life-threatening
on-field cardiac event but is now poised to return this season for Angel City
is nothing short of miraculous, and she knows it.
During the second half of Angel City's home match against the Utah Royals last
May 9, King sat on the field in the 74th minute, appearing dazed. Then
everything went black.
The 20-year-old's heart had stopped.
Trainers rushed to King's side and she was given CPR. Fans and fellow players
were shaken as she was treated on the field for some 11 minutes before she was
rushed away. Once at the hospital, King underwent surgery to repair an
anomalous left coronary artery, a rare congenital defect that had previously
gone undetected.
Ten months later, King is preparing for the National Women's Soccer League
season.
"I for sure have gone through ups and downs, but for the most part, I just am
grateful that I'm able to play again," she said. "I feel like that comes from
my perspective of life just completely changing. I feel like sometimes when you
do something over and over again, you get comfortable and not necessarily
complacent, but you take things for granted of being able to just go out there
and do what you love every day. And for a second I thought that that was taken
from me."
While King was hospitalized, there was a controversy brewing. The NWSL Players
Association was among those that said Angel City's match should have been
suspended after King's collapse. Instead, the game was continued with some 12
minutes of stoppage time.
The league said later the match should have been suspended.
Another player, Racing Louisville's Savannah DeMelo, collapsed during a game
later in the season against the Reign in Seattle and the remainder of that
match was postponed. NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said the league learned
from those experiences and new procedures were put in place to determine the
best course of action when such incidents arise.
Long recovery, and a new mission
King spent the summer at home watching her teammates on television and
relearning to do the things that had once come naturally to her.
She had six weeks of physical therapy to get back on her feet, then went into a
cardiac rehabilitation process. Three days a week for three months she
exercised while doctors closely monitored her heart. By September she was able
to do limited training with her team.
As she worked her way back, she was also hatching a plan.
Through King's leadership, all 16 NWSL teams gave their players, coaches and
staff training this year on hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation and use of
an automatic external defibrillator (AED). The NWSL is the only professional
sports league in the nation to implement CPR training at that scale.
Through her foundation, Savy King of Hearts, King wants to amplify the message
that "you can be a hero with just two hands." Her partner in the initiative,
the American Heart Association, says hands-only CPR can double and even triple
survival chances.
"All credit goes to Savy. She's remarkable," Berman said. "She sent me a note
shortly after she had gone through the main parts of her recovery and came to
us with this idea. And it was clearly a no-brainer for us to support it. What
an amazing opportunity for her to turn something that was really scary for her,
for her teammates, for the league, and turn it into a positive."
Her foundation is also bringing AEDs to communities that don't have them and
she's putting on soccer camps that include CPR training for the kids and their
parents.
Comeback kid
A Southern California native, King's mother, Karrie King, was a professional
biathlete. King herself ran track in high school before playing at North
Carolina under coach Anson Dorrance for a season.
She was the second-overall pick in the 2024 NWSL draft by expansion Bay FC and
played 18 games for the club. She was traded to Angel City in February 2025 and
had started in all eight games for the team before she collapsed.
She also featured on several U.S. soccer youth national teams, and was invited
to senior team coach Emma Hayes' Futures Camp in January 2025.
This Valentine's Day, she was removed from Angel City's season-ending injury
list and appeared in two of the Los Angeles-based team's preseason matches.
Angel City opens the regular season on Sunday at home against the Chicago Stars.
King said there are no restrictions on her and she does not need special
monitoring or tests. She has no fear about continuing her playing career.
"You don't always have to let what happens to you define you and how you decide
to go about your life in the future. Because I can very easily just stop
playing and be like, 'Yeah, this is scary. I'm going to stop.' But I have so
much that I want to accomplish in my life, and I didn't want that to be the
reason that I just stopped altogether, especially if there's a chance that I
could keep going and continue to inspire young girls that go through the same
thing."
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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