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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