Share on LinkedIn

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - It is a big double header weekend in Soccer City. The Thorns will welcome Kansas City to Providence Park on Sunday afternoon, in a match that will be broadcast on FOX 12 Plus.

FOX 12′s Nick Krupke went one-on-one with Portland’s star midfielder Jessie Fleming, as the former UCLA Bruin prepares for a trip to Paris and the Summer Olympics, as the team captain from the defending gold medal winners from Team Canada.

SEE ALSO:

Star forward Janine Beckie has a summer bucket list of a shield, a trophy, a medal and a ring.

Nick: “As cool as the summer is, there is a lot on your plate. To look at your resume and go, ‘wow, a third Olympics at 26-years-old is that still a ‘pinch me moment’ that is happening?”

Fleming: “Yeah, I mean it’s gone by so quickly. It’s weird to think that it’s coming so soon, I feel like it’s really crept up on me, but I am really excited. I am excited for the role that I play with the national team right now and I have kind of been leaning into more of a leadership position and feeling like I have a bit more positive influence on the program, so I think that’s really exciting, and I think just wanting to keep finding ways to push myself and my family is going to be our there in France so I’m excited for that too. It’s always cool for them getting to see me play so I think there is just a lot to be excited about but yeah it’s going by so quickly.”

Nick: “You’re a well-rounded athlete, if people didn’t know, you were a state champion in cross country and in the distance in track as well. You played hockey growing up and gained that toughness so what’s the important part of it in making the player you are today that you have that full background of other sports beyond your love of soccer?”

SEE ALSO:

Winners in six of their last seven matches, the Portland Thorns are back from a two-week international break to host a big one on Saturday night in Soccer City.

Fleming: “When you look at a lot of top players, they played different sports when they were growing up. My whole family were kind of distance runners so that was just I feel part of the culture I grew up around and then in Canada hockey is a pretty popular sport and I grew up watching the NHL and watching world juniors at Christmas every year so it was just part of what I grew up around and I think also having an older brother I kind of wanted to copy everything he was doing and those were all the sports he was playing so I feel really lucky to have gotten to grow up and play those sports and there’s still things that I enjoy doing with my family when I go back home so I definitely think it’s help me become the player I am today and there’s little parts of it still in my game so I think it was really important for me.”

The surging Thorns take on first place Kansas City on Sunday at 1 p.m. from Providence Park with the live match broadcast on FOX 12 Plus.