Nelly Korda: 5 facts about Team USA's golf star aiming for the first back-to-back Olympic golds

For the Paris Olympics this summer, For The Win is helping you get to know some of the star Olympians competing on the world’s biggest stage. We’re highlighting 15 Team USA athletes in the 15 days leading up to the Opening Ceremony. Up next is Nelly Korda.

The hottest golfer in the world is headed to Paris to defend her Olympic gold.

Nelly Korda won her first women’s golf tournament at the Olympics when she took home a gold medal with a -17 score in Tokyo. In the three years since, the soon-to-be 26-year-old has played not just the best golf of her life, but some of the best golf the world has ever seen.

Korda is the odds-on favorite to stand atop the podium once more this summer. Here are five things to know about her as she preps for competition at Le Golf National.

1. Korda started her 2024 season with a record-tying five straight LPGA victories

After four tournament wins in 2022, Korda struggled with back pain and failed to register a single victory in 2023. But some time off to heal primed her for one of the most dominant runs in the sport’s history.

Between January and May of 2024, Korda simply didn’t lose. She brought home titles in five events:

• LPGA Drive On Championship
• Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship
• Ford Championship
• T-Mobile Match Play
•  Chevron Championship

That tied Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez for the most consecutive wins in LPGA history. This streak ended when she withdrew from the JM Eagle LA Championship in order to rest.

2. Korda has struggled in the months leading up to Paris

Korda won May’s Mizuho Americas Open, giving her six LPGA wins in her first seven events of 2024. However, she’s been unable to approach that pace since. She missed the cut in her following three tournaments — the first time that’s ever happened to her — reminding the world how fickle the game can be.

This included over-par nightmares at the U.S. Women’s Open (+10) and KPMG Women’s LPGA Championship (+6). She’d failed to crack 80 in two of those six competitive rounds and carded a 10 on a par three hole during the U.S. Women’s Open.

3. Korda made the cut at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open… when she was 14 years old

Korda will turn 26 on July 28, but she’s nearly a decade into her LPGA career. She turned pro in 2016, but not before an impressive amateur career. That included a 64th place finish at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open, where a +6 score after the first two rounds made her that year’s youngest competitor to make the cut.

The Bradenton, Florida native skipped collegiate golf and played on the Symetra Tour, an LPGA feeder, in 2016. A top-10 season-long finish punched her LPGA pro card, and she’s been a staple of the top tour ever since.

4. Korda has missed time due to various injuries in her career — most recently a dog bite

Korda’s health has been the biggest inhibitor to her success. A blood clot in her arm cost her several starts in 2022. She relinquished her world No. 1 ranking in 2023 after taking time away from the course to deal with a back issue.

That unfortunate injury luck has persisted. She withdrew from a tour event in London this summer, citing the need to recover from a dog bite. That wasn’t enough to derail her Olympic plans; she’s in the lineup for the Amundi Evian Championship in France two weeks before the Games begin.

5. Korda’s gold medal defense begins August 7

• Round 1: Wednesday, August 7
• Round 2: Thursday, August 8
• Round 3: Friday, August 9
• Round 4: Saturday, August 10

It will take place at Le Golf National, the same course that played host to the 2018 Ryder Cup.