After the '96 Olympics, we all started believing that this is bigger than we thought, and we were willing to do the work. We knew that it was up to us, the players, to make soccer successful.

I have a 16 year-old son, so I'm now a soccer mom. I stand on the sidelines and I hear the things parents are saying, so I want them to understand what it is their kids are feeling in any sports environment.

And I remember how proud I was to put on my training jersey and go out on the field. Making it back to that environment was for me my greatest moment, because somebody had told me I couldn't do it and I never gave up on myself, the game and my teammates.

We are shaping young kids to be leaders in their communities and also to be healthier.

My parents and my grandfather on my mom's side would travel the earth. They went to Australia and China, and they went to probably every soccer game I ever played.

What I've really learned is to be open to listen to other people's opinions and then question my own thoughts. And learn how to talk to people. The biggest gift from having one of these moments is that it gets people talking.

The "r" word [racism] is a scary word to me - I don't like to say it. I'm not trying to say it doesn't exist. It's incredibly inflammatory and invites a lot of awful mistakes and injustices that have happened and still do happen. It's a word that has been thrown around in a way that incites a lot of bad feelings in most people.