I think at an early age I learned not to judge people.

My entire purpose is trying to be the best in the game, and if that exudes beauty too, that's pretty powerful.

I think it's my personality to overcome things, learn from them and become stronger, both personally and professionally. To be honest, I welcome those hardships.

I travel a lot and rarely make it home to Seattle.

I never felt the same passion for the game in the States and there were a lot of headaches, a lot of obstacles to overcome - it didn't just run itself for the love of the game because soccer is not the No. 1 sport as it is in Europe.

People didn't put pressure on me. I just played for the love of the game.

It took putting one foot in front of the other every single day to get through it to the point where I made it back on the team and won a gold medal in 2008.