Soccer's Shooting Star
Her parents got plane tickets to Sydney to watch their soccer daughter, Michelle Akers, compete for Olympic gold. But they bought cancellation insurance, just in case. Good thing. Three weeks before the games begin, Akers retired from international competition, citing a battered shoulder, not a tired spirit. Her doctors say it is remarkable the 34-year-old lasted this long. Akers suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. "It's hard to figure out how she recovered from the lows she'd reach," says her longtime coach, Tony DiCicco. She was often in agony after a match, exhausted and unable to eat. That is why, beginning at the 1996 Olympics, her teammates would find her lying on the locker room floor, an IV dangling above.
But the woman known among players as Mufasa, the patriarch in the movie Lion King, won't be remembered just for willing herself to play. Her shot and ball-control skills were unmatched. No one had her combination of strength and speed. And then there was her willingness, as her coach says, to "put her head where someone kicked the ball." Akers wants to play in the women's pro league, but for now she'll retire to her farm and ride horses. She may even watch on TV as her "buds" go for gold. "I'm going to hate it," she says. "I keep waking up every morning thinking I have to go to battle. But I'm done."
This story appears in the September 4, 2000 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.