Kansas Athletics Hall of Famer Liana Salazar is competing with the Colombian national women’s soccer team in Paris, the third time she has participated in an Olympic Games.
Salazar did not play for Colombia in its first game of this year’s competition, a 3-2 loss to France on Thursday, but was available as a substitute, and her team next faces New Zealand on Sunday morning and then Canada three days later.
Salazar, a 31-year-old midfielder, took part in the 2012 Olympics in London when she was in the midst of her KU tenure (2011-15), and later in the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro after graduating. She has also played for Colombia in a World Cup, as well as a pair of Copa América competitions, scoring goals against Argentina on April 16, 2018, and against Chile on July 20, 2022.
At the club level, she currently plays for Millonarios FC in her home city of Bogotá, after recent stints with neighbor Independiente Santa Fe (twice) as well as Brazilian club Corinthians.
She was a member of two NCAA Tournament teams under longtime coach Mark Francis during her career with the Jayhawks, once when she started every match in the midfield in 2011 and once when she put together a 13-goal season in 2014 — including the first-ever goal scored at Rock Chalk Park, a minute and a half into its debut — that earned her third-team All-American honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. She remains No. 3 all time in career goals at KU with 28 and No. 5 in points with 68.
Salazar was inducted into the KU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa
