I have given my life to the game and to the sport.

If you truly expect to realize your dreams, abandon the need for blanket approval. If conforming to everyone's expectations is the number one goal, you have sacrificed your uniqueness, and therefore your excellence.

Everybody should be affected by their own realities in their own lives, their own struggles in their own lives. It makes us who we are, and we all know that.

Athletes are extremists. When they're training, it's laser focus.

There are no shortcuts. If you feel good, you'll look good, you'll play good. Work hard every day. No matter what your strengths and weaknesses, there's no substitute for hard work.

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.

Of course Seattle loves soccer. You can see from the men's Seattle Sounders team.