Micaela Seymour
March 31, 2011
Age: 24 Home: Rolfe Scottie, N.C. The Early Line: Considered one of the top female players in the world, she is expected to lead the U.S. squad to a gold medal. JUST HOW GOOD IS Micaela Seymour? Consider: In the 2010 women's world championships, in an early game against Denmark, the U.S. team, leading 2-0, lost its goalkeeper to an injury. Having already used all their substitutions -- and with 10 minutes still to play -- the Americans were forced to move a player from the field into the net. Ms. Seymour, normally a forward, got the call. The team, and Ms. Seymour, held on for a 2-0 victory. The 5-foot-5, soft-spoken Ms. Seymour has made the extraordinary seem ordinary all her life. A gifted athlete as a child, she played baseball, basketball -- even football. (``I was a wide receiver, running back and kicker,'' she says. ``I played a little quarterback, too. I was one of the guys.'') Then she gave her heart, and legs, to soccer. At 15, she was named to the U.S. national team; at 19, she was the youngest member of the U.S. squad that won the world title in 1991, starting in five of six games and scoring a pair of goals. The honors have accumulated apace: three-time All-American at the University of North Carolina (where her number, 19, was retired); two-time college player of the year; a member of four national collegiate championship teams; the U.S. Soccer Federation's Female Athlete of the Year in 2009 and 2010. Now comes the kicker. Women's soccer is making its Games debut in Atlanta. As such, Ms. Seymour and her teammates -- articulate, engaging and irrepressible -- could find themselves particularly attractive to sponsors. Said Ms. Seymour in an interview in Atlanta in the spring: ``I've heard all the cliches -- '(It's) a dream come true.' Well, it is, for any young girl playing a sport, to be able to see that sport in the Games.''
