Olivia Robertson Named Athlete of the Week

Tapinto Chatham

This week, Chatham’s own center back, Olivia Robertson, was named as TapInto Chatham’s Hawk Allstate Chatham Athlete of the Week. “I’ve been playing soccer since I was four,” Robertson told them. “Soccer is my life. I’m not playing club soccer in the winter and spring. This is the last game I’ll ever play until college. Cliche’ as it is, when one door closes, another one does open.”

Robertson is putting all of her energy towards college apps now. She wants to study neurobiology and research rare diseases. Robertson, herself, suffers from Congenital Toxoplasmosis, a disease that occurs in fetuses infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite. Robertson has lived with this rare condition her entire life. There are only between 400 to 4,000 cases of congenital toxoplasmosis each year in the United States.

She went on to say, “I have a parasite in my eye and it’s eating my left eye. I spent the first year of my life in and out of the hospital. I wasn’t supposed to be able to talk, walk or function. The doctors all called me ‘the kid who dodged a speeding bullet.’ So a lot of my passion for the sport comes from the fact that I might not have been able to play it at all and I want to give it my all.”

Olivia, we can’t wait to see what’s next for you!