In truth, 2007 was the hardest year of my life. I lost my best friend. I lost my father.

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.

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

It's a complicated thing, knowing how much pain my father caused in my life and the lives of others whom I love, yet still holding love for him in my heart. No matter what he did, he was my father. He helped create the person I am.

Unfortunately, people think I'm negative and bitter all the time, and that's not the case.

With each year that's gone by, and as I grow up and get older, I've become more mature, of course, but you have a sense of who you are, and you find confidence in that.