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.

Every athlete acquires routines as a way to help control nerves.

London 2012 is all about winning a medal. Not just any medal, the gold medal.

My father was never around. But I glorified my father, and I was always daddy's little girl. He was my first soccer coach.

I had made a vow to never stay in my home state to play, I wanted to go as far East Coast as possible, more or less to get away from my family life. I ended up staying in my home state and fell in love with it. I ended up having a beautiful relationship with my family over time and it was the best decision I've ever made.

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

I played soccer all my life and I used to think growing up that they put the fat kid in goal or they put the kid that wasn't good with the ball at their feet in goal and I never wanted to do goalkeeper, I was always the goal scorer.