Last month, Gatorade challenged me (Ryan Bagdikian, a social media producer at Sports Illustrated) to try its new workout technology, Gatorade GX. I’m in relatively bad shape—i.e., I’m definitely not a pro athlete—and it’s safe to say the workout Gatorade provided for me definitely differed from my normal nightly walk.
Needless to say, I was classified as a “top sweater” at the event.
Courtesy of PepsiCo
Alongside me and other media members attempting to exercise like real professional athletes, there was USWNT legend Carli Lloyd.
Lloyd, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a two-time World Cup champion, crushed her workouts with ease. The 40-year-old soccer legend hasn’t lost a step.
“It’s a good baseline to see where I’m at, a year and a half out of playing soccer,” Lloyd says. “I’m in a different space. … I’m not competing for anything. But I actually feel pretty good.”
Meanwhile, in the media workout room, several breaks were needed. To test the new GX sweat patch, Gatorade needed to unleash some sweat from us, so the workout was … intense.
We walked into what appeared to be a beautiful aerobics room from the outside but what ended up being my own personal hell on the inside.
The room was set to 86°, and we worked out for almost an hour straight. I released 50 ounces of sweat, which they classified as “high.” They also said I had a low sodium concentration in my sweat, which means I was not hydrated.
Drinking water is not a strong suit of mine. (I’m working on it.) And I didn’t need a patch to tell me I sweat quite a bit—everyone in high school did that. But to know the actual breakdown of what was in my sweat and how I needed to replenish my body was mind-boggling.
2,219 calories. 50 ounces of sweat. Working out like a professional athlete kicked my ass, straight up.
The patch collected sweat over the duration of my workout. Once we finished, I used the Gatorade GX app to scan my patch. After a few moments, the app provided a breakdown of my sweat, as well as what I could drink or eat to replenish some nutrients.
But let’s get back to the real athlete here.
The first time I saw Lloyd at the Gatorade facility in Valhalla, N.Y., the soccer star was on a treadmill, with her face hooked up to a machine that would monitor her throughout different workout intensities. Regardless of the pace being slow or fast, intense or crawling, Lloyd crushed every step of her workout with ease. Just like she did on the pitch.
Courtesy of PepsiCo
When I asked her about her most fond memory playing soccer, her face lit up with excitement. The 2015 World Cup final vs. Japan: Lloyd netted a first half hat trick, with her third goal being from half field. “It’s kinda hard not to go with that one. … It was a fun game,” she says.
Lloyd announced her retirement from soccer in Aug. 2021, and she played in her last USWNT match on Oct. 26 of that year. But her life has remained action-packed ever since.
She was a contestant on Fox’s Special Forces as well as a broadcaster for the network during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The star is ecstatic to say that she will return to Fox this summer for the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
A sneak peek of Lloyd’s analysis on her former team’s shot at a three-peat this summer came with some hesitation. “This is a hard one … just because the women’s game has come so far, and the separation from other countries to the US isn’t as large anymore. … That is fantastic for the sport.”
The U.S.’s biggest challenges to the World Cup throne, according to Lloyd, are England, Spain, Germany and France. Her confidence in the U.S. was shaky, at best, given the strength of other global soccer powers these days.
Lloyd added that although the team’s third title will not come easily, the ride along the way is going to be some of the best product fans have seen in women’s soccer yet.
“It’s gonna be an exciting World Cup. It’s gonna be the best, the most competitive … it’s gonna be exciting to see who’s gonna lift that trophy.”
And though the U.S. won’t have Lloyd on the pitch this summer, it’s clear the soccer legend has not lost a step since hanging her cleats up.
