 Susan O'Malley grew up in a Catholic family in Clinton, Maryland (in Prince George's County), one of five children of Janice Karol and Peter O'Malley.Her father was an influential Maryland attorney who also served as president of the National Hockey League team, the Washington Capitals, when Susan was a child.The middle child of the five siblings, she expressed an early interest in sports, writing an elementary school essay on her desire to run a professional sports team, which a teacher told her was "unrealistic".