Sophia Harvey earns Ultimate Frisbee world championship in Spain
- Klas Stolpe
- Jul 10
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 11
Former Thunder Mountain High School volleyball star helps Team USA defeat Japan 15-10 to win title
Gliding horizontally three feet above the playing field Juneau’s Sophia Harvey completed a diving catch in the end zone and scored a point any seasoned athlete of the world would dream of.
Except this dream play was a reality in the title game at the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) Under-24 Ultimate Championships in Logroño, Spain, June 28, and one of the scores that helped Team USA defeat Japan 15-10 for the women’s title.
“I think everyone who has played sports at a high level has dreamed about making the game-winning serve or shot, so it definitely has played through my head in almost every sport I’ve played,” Harvey said. “But the lovely thing about Ultimate is that there are at least 15 points where everybody on the team gets to do something cool.”
Harvey, who turned 22 on July 3, didn’t venture into Ultimate Frisbee, referred to as Ultimate among those in the sport, until attending the University of Michigan.
Harvey graduated from Juneau’s now defunct Thunder Mountain High School in 2021 where she participated in track and field and her main sport of volleyball.
In her first months at Michigan she left a club volleyball practice disillusioned with the sport.
“I tried out for the volleyball team, actually, and the club team was super competitive,” she said. “I didn't really like the team vibe. So I was walking back to my dorm and I was in my athletic gear and I saw these like disks flying and I was like, ‘Oh, this looks fun.’ So I hopped into a practice and played and was like, ‘Oh my gosh this is the best thing ever. I just get to run and chase down a Frisbee.’ And I loved the people on the team, so I ended up staying and chose Frisbee over volleyball. I was hooked after the first day.”
Harvey became a "cutter" on the Michigan team her freshman year and remained so until graduating in 2025 with a degree in neuroscience.
“I’ve always loved meeting people and trying to figure out how humans work,” she said. “I went to a neuroscience camp at Ohio State University and fell in love with all that was unknown about the brain and I kind of stuck with it throughout college and absolutely loved it… I do think that sports psychology is super interesting and just how momentum really changes the game and how we face opponents…Something lovely about ultimate Frisbee is we have Spirit of the Game. So it's like self-rest, a lot of being able to talk with other players when you're at the height of adrenaline, and just being able to calm down and talk about a call and relate to other people through sports...Sports carry a lot of emotions and that is the beautiful thing, relying on your teammates, relying on humanity to try and come together and make a call and not argue or have angry moments with each other.”
Ultimate is seven-versus-seven on a field 40 yards wide and 120 yards long — 70 yards are playing field in the middle with 25 yards on each end the scoring end zones. A playing team will have four or five cutters (similar to receivers) and two to three handlers (similar to quarterbacks).
“They distribute the disk, they throw really far,” Harvey said. “And then you have cutters and you're just like running around trying to catch the disk. So I was one of the cutters.”
A point is scored when a player catches a disc in the opponent’s end zone. Players pass the disc to advance — no running with the disc is allowed — and can only hold it for 10 seconds. An incomplete or missed pass changes possession. Physical contact is not allowed, and players are responsible for calling their own fouls and resolving disputes.
The foundation of the rules in Ultimate is Spirit of the Game, which places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.
“I think what people just don't realize is that it isn't like disc golf,” Harvey said. “This is a self-ref game with a lot of running and Spirit Of The Game has a huge impact on your score as a team. It is very important to be ‘spirited,’ and it’s a non-contact sport and all of these things aren't usually present in other sports that people play.”
At the end of a game — a contest lasts until 15 points are reached, or a predetermined time is reached — the teams will gather and discuss the other’s play.
While at Michigan the team reached the college nationals three times.
In September of her senior year Michigan coach Tracey Lo encouraged Harvey to try out for Team USA. An application required short essay answers to 55 questions. Over 600 college-age players applied and over 200 were selected to attend one of two four-day tryout camps. Harvey went to the 90-degree October heat of Florida.
Twenty-four players were selected in December to fill each of three rosters: mixed, open or women’s, for the WFDF World U-24 Ultimate Championships in Spain and defend Team USA’s three gold medals from the 2023 Worlds. Just 12 holdovers from last year’s U-24 teams were chosen among the selections and eight athletes from Team USA World Juniors.
“I didn't quite believe it when I found out,” Harvey said. “And I immediately called my dad because he's always been my biggest supporter, especially in the sports world. So I was just so proud to tell him that I had made this team that I didn’t even know existed a few months before.”
The team’s first gathering came in March.
“We like waited a few months, we had a few Zoom calls to meet the team and then we went to a training camp in North Carolina in the beginning of March, and that was the first we all saw each other and played together,” Harvey said. “It was three days of Frisbee all day. And then the next time we saw each other was in June. We went a week early to the tournament and we had a training camp there. And that's the only two times we played together before the tournament.”
Said Harvey, “All the bus drivers were like, ‘Where are you going?’ and when we said Logroño they were like, ‘How is a world championship being held in Logroño, it is so small.’ But it was a gorgeous little town, so cute. It was the first time I had been to Spain too.”
The team had one practice weekend in Spain, six hours a day in 110-degree heat.
“And then we went to tournament weekend and it was like one game a day,” Harvey said. “And I was like, ‘Wow, this is so much easier than practicing for six hours.’ We would wake up and have a great breakfast at our hotel and then take the public bus to the sports center, warm up for a very long time. It was 100 degrees each day and on the turf it was 110 and our cleats started to melt while we were running around so it was kind of crazy."
"Then we would meet the other team, play the game and after the game we would do something called a Spirit Circle where you all intermixed and talked about like how you felt during the game and who you would give a Spirit Gift, which is to the person who had the best spirit during the game or somebody who really stood out. It was really lovely and we played Japan and other teams who didn't speak English, and so we had to have a translator and it was really interesting to try to talk about this game that we all love through language barriers.”
The tournament was also held during Spain’s solstice and one night Logroño had a huge bonfire which led to the Spanish women’s team inviting Team USA to a fun dance off which was joined by the rest of the tourney field.
Another night featured thunderstorms.
“Spain has huge thunderstorms,” Harvey said. “We each had one roommate and each room pair had to do the whole team's laundry one day. So me and my roommate, Zsa Zsa Gelfand, were out doing laundry and it started downpouring on us. So we go under this awning, and then I see two of my really good friends from Oregon and Colorado — Clil Phillips and Acacia Hahn — very outdoorsy. They come sprinting down the cobblestones with no shoes and they're like, ‘Sophie we know you wanted to come out and dance in the rain so we came to pick you up.’ And then we all just ran around Logroño in the rain and it was just very fun to experience the culture and the city outside of Frisbee and just explore.”
Harvey’s team went undefeated, besting Columbia 15-5, Australia 15-1, Austria 15-4, Germany 15-1, Philippines 15-0, Japan 15-4 and Italy 15-4 and then defeating Great Britain 15-8 in a semifinal before dispatching Japan 15-10 in the championship. Team USA also won the Mixed title (15-8 over Canada) and the Open title (15-6 over Belgium) and defended their three-peat.
“Before the final game my coach from Michigan, Tracey Lo, texted me and said to play without fear and have fun,” Harvey said. “She was the coach that pushed me to apply for the team and having her remind me to play for fun and lay it all out on the field for this once-in-a-lifetime experience really helped me let go of any nerves I had playing at this level and just go out on the field and have fun playing the sport that I love.”
Harvey said Team USA had good cutters, good handlers and “Our main game was really good in the air so if a thrower put a really far throw, and the defenders and our players went for the disc, we would probably come out with it in the air. It was like a jump ball so we were good at that. It’s called a ‘huck’ and you can huck a disc 50 yards and gain a lot of ground.”
Harvey noted the huck she caught for a score in the championship.
“So that was a long point,” she said. “We had turned it a couple of times. And I saw Clil (Phillips) had the disk, and I knew that she probably wanted to throw it deep. So I started running and saw the throw. And it was a little low, and my legs were pretty tired. So I was like, ‘I have to speed up.’ And then the Japanese girl laid out, tried to defend it. I couldn't really see the disk. And I just kind of jumped and hoped that it was in my hands and it was.”
Harvey said she brought home more than a gold medal and memories.
“Our coaches put together a paper for each of us where every team member wrote on it,” she said. “They wrote something that they appreciate about you or remember from the time. And we did it right before we played in the finals just to kind of show the team how much support you have and how close we've gotten. And so that single sheet of paper is probably something that I'm going to cherish for a very long time. It was really sweet…I am relatively new to the sport so I’m not a big name in college ultimate like people growing up in the Frisbee world. So just having people be like, ‘I didn’t know who you were coming in but you really showed out on the field and showed you deserve to be here and your energy is very contagious…’ It was just things like that were very sweet to hear and made me feel like I belonged and was ready to go out and be with my team and win the game.”
She also brought home the title of World Champion.
“I don't know if it's set in yet or what it really means in the context of the real world,” Harvey said of winning the world title. “But now I have like 24 more great friends, which is awesome…Spain was one of the best experiences of my life. It’s one I’ll remember forever and I met some amazing people and played some amazing sports. I think it's just being able to say that you did it and meeting some of the best Frisbee players in the U.S. and in other countries was just an amazing experience.”
Harvey is home for the summer, working at Gastineau Guiding, and playing Frisbee each Sunday evening on the Thunder Mountain Middle School field from 6-9 p.m. among friends that include DIII players Denny Corso and Jackson Stanley.
“Now when I come to our Sunday barefoot ultimate Frisbee everyone is like, ‘oh my gosh we have the world champion.’” Harvey laughed. “I tell them, ‘No, no, this is barefoot Frisbee, this is break time…’ I am very happy playing barefoot Frisbee with the people I grew up with and I made my family learn how to toss the Frisbee so they go out with me sometimes. It is fun to hear some people be like, ‘Oh my gosh I watched your game.’ Whoa, that's crazy that I was just out there in the Worlds but I would love to teach some camps and just make it a more well-known thing because I do think the Spirit Of The Game is a lovely concept to include into sports.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at kstolpe@juneauindependent.com.
