When Tori Penso walked onto the field, her three daughters were with her – their names inscribed on her cleats as a reminder of what the occasion meant beyond the whistle.
Weeks before her 40th birthday, Penso became the first American woman – and the second woman ever – to referee a men’s World Cup match. She also led the first all-American, all-female officiating crew in the tournament’s history to oversee two group-stage games in June.
The milestone follows a string of firsts. She took charge of a senior World Cup final at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, another first for an American referee, and she is also Major League Soccer’s first full-time female referee.
Yet only six (or 3.5%) of the 170 officials picked this summer were women, highlighting how rare such breakthroughs remain. And for the Florida native, her trailblazing achievement was about far more than getting split-second decisions right in the face of online misogyny.
“This moment is for them so that they have a bigger stage when they get there,” she recently told CNN Sports in New York. “Women belong in sport, in boardrooms, and places where maybe they haven’t historically had a seat. And when we show up and we do it right and we perform well, it moves the needle.”
