Pediatric Nurse Wins Gold with U.S. Deaf Women’s National Soccer Team
- Paige Beaudry, who has been hearing impaired since birth, won gold in the December 2025 Tokyo Deaflympics with the U.S. Women’s Deaf National Soccer Team.
- At only 23 years old, Beaudry has played soccer for 17 years and graduated from nursing school last year.
- She now works as a pediatric nurse and is planning her wedding, while looking to expand opportunities for hearing-impaired youth to play soccer.
In late 2025, Paige Beaudry (@paige.beaudry), BSN, RN, 23, and her team won gold at the Deaflympics in Tokyo for the U.S. Women’s Deaf National Soccer Team, but if you ask Paige, her gold medal is not the only win that matters in her life.
That's because Beaudry also graduated from nursing school and took her first job as a staff RN at the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children's Hospital that same year. For Paige, fulfilling her dream of becoming a pediatric nurse and achieving her dream of playing soccer as a hearing-impaired person are accomplishments she is equally as proud of.
“It was always my wish when I’d blow out my birthday candles to be an Olympic soccer player and to play for the United States,” she said.
A History in Hospitals
Beaudry was born hearing impaired, so being deaf has always been part of her life. She tells Nurse.org that she spent a lot of time in hospitals for her different hearing appointments growing up, which set the foundation for her future career path.
"I grew up going to the hospital for appointments for my hearing and got to see all the fun things they do to make hospitals less scary for kids, so that’s how I decided on pediatric nursing," she explains.
She also has plenty of nurses in the family who exposed her to the nursing profession. Both her sister and brother-in-law are nurses, and her aunt and grandma both retired from careers in nursing as well.
"My grandma was a nurse and is someone I look up to," Beaudry says. "Growing up, she always told me stories of how she had been able to make a big impact on people’s lives, and I knew that I wanted to help people the way she did."
Beaudry is already doing her family proud and tells Nurse.org that she loves her job as a pediatric nurse.
What do you like about being a pediatric nurse?
"I love getting the chance to talk with my patients and their families and help make them feel heard and reassure them that we are there to help make them feel better. I love that in pediatrics we are always trying to make it a safe environment for our patients during what can be such a scary time in their lives. I feel it is so important, especially for kids, that they feel heard and know that they have someone who is there to advocate for them."
BSN, RN
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Bend it Like Beaudry
When it comes to juggling the demands of soccer and outside responsibilities, we're sorry, but Bechkam has nothing on Beaudry.
She juggled intense training for soccer, medaling in the 2022 Deaflympics in Brazil and at the 2023 World Deaf Football Championships in Malaysia, all while graduating high school and going to nursing school, and then continuing her training while studying for the NCLEX and landing her first role as a nurse.
Beaudry, who plays as a defender for her team, says fitting her soccer training in alongside her nursing schedule has been one of the largest adjustments.
"It can definitely be a lot to balance my soccer training and nursing schedule because in nursing, your schedule always changes," she explains.
Like many new nurses, Beaudry works a rotating schedule, working both days and nights, along with weekends and weekdays, so she adds that some days, she has to wake up at 4 A.M. to fit in a workout before heading to the hospital, and other days she goes back and forth for games on only a couple of hours of sleep.
"For me, it’s all about planning times to train and being motivated even when there are times I don’t feel like training," she says.
Making it All Work
At both the hospital and on the field, Beaudry uses specific accommodations for her hearing loss.
Although Beaudry started playing soccer as a child and dreamed of someday making it to the Olympics, she admits that she didn't think she would have a future in the sport because of her hearing impairment. It wasn't until a teacher told her about the Deaflympics that she first realized her dream could come true. And today, she says that she even views her hearing impairment for what it has given her, not just for what she doesn't have.
"I think my hearing impairment has offered me more opportunities that I would have never gotten if I were able to hear fully," she says. "I was able to join a community and team that has given me the chance to continue playing at a high level!"
As a hearing-impaired nurse, Beaudry also relies on different tools and accommodations.
For example, during nursing school, her professors played videos with closed captions, and some printed their lecture notes off for her to read instead of listen to. She also has a stethoscope that connects to her hearing aids so that I am able to listen to my patients.
"Being a nurse on a respiratory unit, it is very helpful when I am assessing my patients' breathing," she points out.
She also makes a point to show her pediatric patients her hearing aids and talk with them about the devices, especially if they have any questions.
"I try to normalize it that way if they see someone else with hearing aids, that they are aware of what they do and how they help people," she says.
Going for the Gold
Beaudry may have already won gold, but she doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. In addition to planning a summer 2026 wedding to her fiancé, Griffin Storr, the pediatric nurse will continue playing for the U.S. Women’s Deaf National Soccer Team as a captain and add to her nursing resume by becoming a Certified Pediatric Nurse.
She sees her experience winning gold with the soccer team as a "blessing" and is proud to represent her country.
"It is something that I never really thought was possible until joining this team," she says. "It honestly reminds me of how I am playing for something bigger than myself. It is so amazing to get to represent the country in such a positive way and represent the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. It shows that anything is possible with hard work."
Beaudry also hopes to help expand opportunities for fellow hearing-impaired soccer players, and encourages anyone looking to follow in her footsteps to acknowledge the hard aspects of a hearing impairment while also focusing on their capabilities as well.
"There can definitely be some hard moments, whether it’s feeling frustrated from not being able to hear something or feeling left out because you’re the only one that has a hearing device in your friend group," she says, adding:
"But it is important to remember in those hard times that you are still just as capable of doing whatever it is that you want. It does not have to be something that limits you, with some adapting and will there is always a way. There is also a whole community that is there to back you up and relate with you on how you may be feeling, so you are never alone."
Images provided by Paige Beaudry
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