CHAPTER 1 USA WINS FIRST WOMEN'S GOLD A young Team USA just survived the group stage of the first ever women's Olympic soccer tournament They advanced to play Norway in a tense semifinal match Norway took the lead 18 minutes into the match The Americans couldn't manage to score in the game until Michele Akers's goal in the 76th minute Time ran out with the countries still tied 1-1 but a US midfielder burned the Norwegian goalkeeper in extra time for the 2-1 win The eight countries that competed in soccer in the 1996 Olympics included the United States and China Team USA had won 2-0 over China in the 1995 Women's World Cup to finish third At the 1996 Olympics the teams played to a scoreless tie in their group game China went on to finish atop the group Mia Hamm fights for the ball versus Norway's Gro Espeseth in the 1996 Olympic semifinal
Mia Hamm 9 was a force in American soccer in the 1990s China defeated Brazil 3 2 in their semifinal game Now the two teams that played for third place the year before would face off for the Olympic gold medal Team USA and China took the field in front of more than 76,000 fans Most of them were clad in red white and blue at the University of Georgia's football stadium At the time it was the largest crowd ever to watch a women's sporting event The stadium erupted as US midfielder Shannon MacMillan scored the game's first goal It happened in the 19th minute when she pounced on a rebound after teammate Mia Hamm's shot hit the post Chinese midfielder Sun Wen answered quickly just 13 minutes later bringing China even at 1 1
The score remained tied until midway through the second half In the 68th minute US defender Joy Fawcett got behind the Chinese defense with the ball She passed to Tiffeny Milbrett Milbrett chipped the ball into the back of the net and celebrated with a somersault Milbrett's goal put Team USA up 2 1 The record crowd held its breath The Americans played hard to fend off their rivals for the final 20 plus minutes And they held on to win the first women's Olympic gold medal WOMEN'S SOCCER BAN Women's soccer had been banned over 70 years earlier in several European countries including England Countries started lifting bans in the 1970 but women's professional soccer took time to return to its previous popularity The 1995 Women's World Cup was organized by FIFA in response to the sport's growth The excitement generated by the tournament proved that women's soccer was there to stay at the Olympics The pioneering women in that first tournament set the stage for many more thrilling Olympic competitions to come
