Q&A;: Olympic captain discusses soccer career

Last week, Foudy was in Philadelphia as a guest of Penn women's soccer coach Patrick Baker. Foudy spoke both at the Penn women's soccer banquet and at the Big 5's annual National Girls and Women Sports Day at St. Joseph's University. She recently took time out to talk to The Daily Pennsylvanian's Marc Chodock and Jordan Smith. DP: What was it like to win the first Women's World Championship in 1991 in China? Julie Foudy: We had been planning to have a World Cup for a long time, so it was a huge leap for women's soccer. They did not know what was going to happen out in China. We got there and it was unbelievable. The final was played in front of 75 to 65,000. The Chinese put on a spectacle of the whole show. That was the big thing, but when we came back to the States, nobody knew what was going on. That has always been the challenge for us -- attracting the media's attention. DP: Why was the Olympic women's soccer event more popular than the Women's World Cup, because for men it is the exact opposite? JF: I did not think it would be, because growing up you are always thinking about playing in a World Cup. The men's is such a side show, because it is restricted to only under the age of 23. DP: Did NBC's lack of coverage of the women's soccer final detract from its significance? JF: It was a surprise. They said once we had made it to the final we are going to program what we have and replay three 10-minute segments of the game. The frustrating thing was that it was such a great atmosphere. They were showing diving preliminaries, and we had 70,000 people going crazy in our stadium. DP: What do you see as the difference in women's soccer in the U.S. before the Olympics and after the Olympics? JF: The biggest thing is the recognition of the players. I think that is important. There were no role models when I was a kid. I idolized Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and those types but never any females. DP: What do you think of a proposed women's league in the United States? JF: The funny thing is that all of the sponsors are dying for it. Nike, Reebok and Adidas are all ready to jump in, but they have not put together a business plan for it. It usually seems to be the other way around, having the business plan but dying to get the sponsors. The sponsors are the ones pushing. I think it is going to go, because the hardest part is getting the money there. DP: How much support would it have from the players on the U.S. national team? JF: Everyone would play. Everyone is dying for it. People do not want to go to Japan and go abroad. A lot of us are married, and now some even have kids. It is necessary, because there are no games. I have only played in one game since the Olympics. DP: What are you doing right now? A biography on you says you are registered in medical school. JF: I was accepted a year before the Olympics and deferred that year. I was supposed to start a month after the Olympics. It was too chaotic, so I deferred until next September again. Stanford was great about it. I racked my brain trying to make a decision, and I don't think I am going to do it. There are too many other things I want to do. DP: How do you keep up with the training when you are not with the team? JF: I train all of the time. The basis of the team is that you train yourself. Even when I am traveling, I have to set my schedule so that I can get my training in no matter how busy it gets. You have to be disciplined about it. It is so easy when you are doing appearances and a lot of media stuff to get side tracked. The whole reason it is coming about is because of your soccer, so you have to keep it a priority. DP: What are some of the differences you have seen over time in women's athletics? JF: Coming out of high school there were only a handful of colleges that would offer scholarships. I went to Stanford without a scholarship. I wanted to always go there as a kid. Academically and athletically, it was the match I wanted. I turned down a full ride from North Carolina. Today, they are so many schools that have programs. They all have full rides, and they all have great funding. DP: At a time when many girls did not play sports, how did you get started with soccer? JF: Where I grew up [Mission Viejo, Calif.), everyone played soccer. It did not matter if you were a girl or a boy. It was never gender specific. That has been a great thing about the United States, because it has never been gender specific. When you go to other countries, they laugh at a woman playing soccer, because it is such a male dominating thing in their culture. DP: How much longer do you plan on playing for the U.S. national team? JF: I will probably play another Olympics and then start doing other things. DP: Are you looking into coaching? JF: I don't think so. I have been in soccer for so long and surrounded by it for so long that I want to go another avenue. Maybe getting into soccer in a television-type content. DP: What does it mean to be captain of the U.S.A.? JF: I think the biggest thing at the Olympics was trying to keep the team focused. There are so many distractions from media and family. It was a zoo everywhere you went. That was the hardest thing for us as a team and something I was very conscious of as a captain. Our focus was our strength during the Olympics. It was basically tunnel vision.