Ohlmiller first tore her ACL, MCL and meniscus representing Team USA at the 2022 World Lacrosse Women’s World Championship. She helped the U.S. to gold with 10 goals and seven assists but had to sit out the final medal match against Team Canada after the injury. She had surgery a month later before re-tearing everything in November 2023 while training for the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championship. She again underwent immediate surgery.
Her second straight rehab brought doubt. Not about if she’d ever play again. More about the type of player she’d be upon returning.
Then she turned a comeback into a historic highlight.
“I’ll always look back on the Champ Series with a grateful heart for that moment and just like all the moments in between, because that was a tough injury to come back from, and just to be able to play for those 10 days of the Championship Series, I’m just really proud of myself for being able to get out on the field and experience what the WLL has to offer,” she said.
Much of that recovery and resurgence was for “Little Kylie,” as Ohlmiller calls her younger self who first picked up a lacrosse stick in the third grade.
Those reminders of her as a child, when she was eager yet underskilled, have crept into her head throughout her playing career to prompt her to be where her cleats are — whether that’s in a collegiate playoff game, the locker room, a sideline conversation or physical therapy. It’s those “little moments,” Ohlmiller said, that will stick with her in retirement.
And, the little wins.
“This game has taught me patience in a big sense,” Ohlmiller said. “It’s also taught me to appreciate the little wins. I feel like so much of our time as athletes are spent chasing the championships. But championships don’t happen without the little wins along the way.”
Ohlmiller, 29, said, while a strenuous decision, she is ready to retire to help keep her body safe. She’ll stay heavily involved with women’s lacrosse through KO17, her training company, and broadcasting, mainly calling collegiate games for her alma mater. She will also stay a PLL fan, loyal to whichever team her husband, long-stick midfielder Ryland Rees, suits up for.
“ I can confidently say that so many of my relationships and friendships and memories and moments that stick out in my head have something to do with lacrosse,” Ohlmiller said. “For that, I’m forever indebted to the game because without it, I might not have my husband, the 30-plus sisters from my Stony Brook days that are all now bridesmaids in each other’s weddings and aunts to each other’s kids. Then there’s the friendships I was able to make with players that used to be my rivals in the professional league.
“ As much as the game has given me so many things on the field, I think the relationships off the field, are something that can last a lifetime.”
If Little Kylie could see her now?
“She’d be really proud,” Ohlmiller said.
