Brandi Chastain opened the e-mail message from a close friend. It contained a news item about an Iranian soccer player who was fined $1,200 and suspended six months after scoring a goal, tearing off his shirt . . . and pulling down his shorts. "I don't think you have to go this far," the friend suggested in the note.
The teasing hasn't stopped, but Chastain can take it. Why, she is the source of some of it; at a U.S. Olympic Committee dinner in Washington recently, she stood behind the microphone and revealed, with comic timing, that she would under no circumstances rip off her dress.
Chastain and her teammates never did understand the fuss created when Chastain yanked off her jersey after scoring the winning penalty kick in the United States' overtime victory in the Women's World Cup. The sports bra underneath, after all, is standard exercise equipment for many women. "It's not," teammate Tiffeny Milbrett said, "like she stripped down to her bare-naked self.
"No doubt it was a powerful, powerful image, but that was because she won the darn game for us."
That victory concluded a tournament that brought an unprecedented level of attention to women's team sports in the United States. It also helped the U.S. players negotiate a contract for equal pay with the men's team. And it gave Chastain--who appeared on three national magazine covers after the final--more promotional opportunities than she ever imagined would come her way.
Yet the most fundamental part of Chastain's life has hardly changed. She's back on the field this summer, just another veteran player fighting to earn the respect and confidence of new coach April Heinrichs as the U.S. women's national team prepares for its next challenge: the Olympics. The U.S. team is the defending Olympic champion, having won the first gold medal awarded in women's soccer at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. "I love soccer more than I ever have in my life," Chastain said. "And I feel a new sense of urgency in my training habits."
That, perhaps, can be credited to the arrival of Heinrichs, who took over for longtime coach Tony DiCicco after he retired abruptly last fall. At first, veteran defender Kate Sobrero said, Heinrichs "scared the living dickens out of all of us" with her serious approach and stoic demeanor. Chastain said Heinrichs has a playful side--it's just hidden a little. Chastain recalled playing in 1991 with Heinrichs, then a star player on the U.S. squad, and making a mistake on the field. "I've never been reprimanded so badly in my life," Chastain said. "I was scared to death of her."
