Team USA last won an Olympic medal in field hockey 40 years ago. But it came with a price.

Beth Anders achieved the dream of becoming an Olympian. But she never expected to have it taken away.

At age 28, she qualified with the U.S. women’s national field hockey team for the 1980 Moscow Games. She left her teaching job to continue her training after being asked to choose. The risk was one Anders was willing to take.

In December 1979, Anders was home in Norristown when she heard President Jimmy Carter on television suggesting that the United States was considering boycotting the 1980 Olympics in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

She immediately called national team coach Vonnie Gros: “‘Vonnie, this cannot be true,’” said Anders, now 72. “‘This is not true, is it?’ She goes, ‘Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be all right.’”

A month later, Anders, who attended Plymouth Whitemarsh High School and played field hockey and lacrosse at Ursinus, was invited to Washington to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Each of Team USA’s captains in their respective sports was in attendance, she said, and they were told that they weren’t going to the Olympics. The disappointment was clear.

“When Jimmy Carter walked in the room, nobody stood. The media was jumping all over us, ‘Why didn’t you stand up?’” Anders said. “We didn’t know — we were just told that we weren’t going to the Olympics, it wasn’t a matter of disrespect. It was a matter of honest reaction.”

The 1980 Moscow Games was the first time that women’s field hockey was part of the Olympics, after years of being considered too dangerous for female participation.

Team USA qualified in Vancouver in August 1979 after defeating England, a team the U.S. had never beaten, and came in third in the World Cup.

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“We were peaking, so we were ready to go into the 1980 Games,” Anders said. “But we hung in there for four more years and played in 1984.”

They didn’t just play in the Los Angeles Games — Team USA won bronze in 1984, the last time it medaled in the Olympics.

More than half of the players on the 1984 Olympic roster were from the Philadelphia area.

One of the biggest influences on the game was coach Gros, who played at Ursinus and later built programs at West Chester and Princeton.

After Karen Shelton attended Marple Newtown High School in Delaware County, she went to West Chester because of the athletic opportunities available to women. There weren’t many offered elsewhere. Gros was a main contributor to that culture at West Chester.

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“I just consider myself lucky,” said Shelton, now 66, who also had a stellar coaching career at North Carolina. “The Michelangelo of field hockey. She was just revered, especially for the players on the team that went to West Chester. We would run through a wall for Vonnie. She just was so good, funny, and creative. She pushed us into that modern era.”

Penn State was one of the first universities to support athletic scholarships for women. Christine Larson-Mason and Charlene Morett-Curtiss haven’t forgotten that.

“My dad worked at the refinery in South Jersey,” Morett-Curtiss said. “It was going to be a stretch financially. When the coach talked to me about being able to offer me a scholarship, it made a huge difference. What an impact on my life — I am forever grateful to Penn State.”

Funny enough, Larson-Mason and Morett-Curtiss actually were “enemies” before joining forces at Penn State.

Larson-Mason, now 68, attended Interboro High School while Morett-Curtiss, 66, went to Lansdowne Aldan High School, now called Penn Wood. The schools were rivals. So initially the two didn’t like each other.

“I remember when I decided to go to Penn State, I was a lifeguard in her town,” Morett-Curtiss said. “Everybody was like, ‘Oh, Chris Larson’s at Penn State’ — I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ Then we really connected my freshman year. She was such a fun person to have as a teammate.”

In 1977, the two tried out for the national team. There were various development camps held around the tristate area. Larson-Mason and Morett-Curtiss both earned a spot with Team USA, and, when the 1980 Olympics came around, they wanted a chance at being Olympians.

They vividly remember the moment the Olympic roster was announced.

“It was my life. I didn’t have another life. I had training and I had coaching. Everything else was on hold. That was OK with me because I loved it.”

“Char and I were rooming together,” Larson-Mason said. “We went into the room and we’re just big-eyed, staring at each other, hands in the air, ‘Oh my gosh, can you believe it?’ We’re jumping on the beds, screaming in the pillow, screaming to each other, laughing. We were so excited.”

However, the boycott left many of the members unsure what to do next. Most of them graduated from college and needed to find jobs to support themselves if they wanted to continue their training.

They also had to make sacrifices. Many members of the 1980 roster wanted their chance to compete in the Olympics, so they were willing to hold off other chapters of their lives, like getting married and having kids.

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“I knew I wanted to go to ‘84, but coaching was a priority at Old Dominion,” said Anders, who spent 29 seasons at the helm of the Monarchs. “My plan was to get up at 4 a.m. and train. That’s what you do. It was my life. I didn’t have another life. I had training and I had coaching. Everything else was on hold. That was OK with me because I loved it.”

Morett-Curtiss added: “We worked hard. We stay committed to the process, and we stayed committed to each other.”

The Los Angeles Games were a dream.

Walking through the village, members of Team USA were astonished to be around athletes like Mary Decker, who’s recognized as one of the greatest American female middle-distance runners, two-time gold medalist hurdler Edwin Moses, and the legendary Michael Jordan.

“Going into the Coliseum, the intensity and excitement just grew,” Morett-Curtiss said. “We’re the home team. In the Coliseum, when we came around the curve, I could see almost 100,000 people. It was crazy.”

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Shelton was standing in the infield with her teammates when she watched the doves get released. At first, the environment felt overwhelming. But then something happened to lighten the mood.

“I got [expletive] upon,” Shelton said, laughing. “I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I learned later that it’s a sign of good luck, and it explains a lot. I’ve been lucky my entire life.”

Six teams competed in a single round-robin tournament. There weren’t eliminations, and every team had the chance to play another, which meant each game mattered and the score was important.

The Netherlands won the tournament, finishing with four wins and one draw. West Germany won the silver medal. But third was still up for grabs.

Initially, the United States and Australia were tied with two wins, one draw, and two losses, so the two countries had to battle it out with a penalty shootout for the bronze medal.

“When we got to the stroke-off, we got a second chance at a medal,” said Anders, who finished as the top scorer in the Los Angeles Games with eight goals. “We put all 10 strokes in. We didn’t miss one stroke. Our keeper saved five. That moment when we won it was a culmination of everything. Everything we did was worth it.”

“We were all running on the field,” Morett-Curtiss said. “When that medal goes around your neck, [Team USA goalkeeper] Gwen Cheeseman said, ‘It may look bronze to you, but it’s gold to me’ — that’s how we felt.”

The wait was finally over. Team USA wore its medal proudly. Each of them knew how hard it was to get this point. So when Lionel Richie started singing “All Night Long” at the closing ceremony, the team celebrated.

For most members, this would be their final time competing with the national team. It wasn’t what they were thinking about in the moment, but they wanted to win for Gros, who coached Team USA from 1977 to 1984.

“She was a real pioneer,” said Regina Buggy, a former athletic director at Episcopal Academy. “She wasn’t going to just do the status quo. She wanted better. She wanted more, and she pushed everyone to have those types of goals.”

The transition afterward was tough. They didn’t want to give up playing, but many went into coaching and made their own impact.

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Shelton turned the Tar Heels into one the nation’s best programs; Morett-Curtiss spent 36 years at Penn State and became the longest-serving coach in program history; Buggy jump-started the girls’ athletic teams at EA after it had been an all-boys school.

They’ve helped the next generation of players, like 19-year-old Ashley Sessa, who’s heading to the Paris Games, and many of them are still close to this day.

“I’m an Olympian for life, and I take great pride in it,” Shelton said. “Whenever the Olympics come on or it’s talked about, you just have that sense of nationalistic pride. We’re bonded together. I value it greatly, and I know how much it takes to get there.”