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Sky's the limit Atlanta Beat forward seizes opportunity for 'normal life'
By Scott French, Soccer America A chance for a "normal" life, one defined by possibility and choice -- by the freedom to do as one pleases -- has lured Chinese forward Sun Wen, arguably the finest women's soccer player on the planet, to America. Oh, she wants to help the Atlanta Beat win the WUSA's first title, too. Sun Wen has so many dreams, she's not sure which to follow. Her choices, for the first time, appear limitless. Where she lives, how she lives, what she does, whether she gets a dog -- it's all up to her. "I got a new apartment," she beams like a lottery-winner. "For the first time, I live by myself. After training, we're so tired, but when I lie down on the sofa in the apartment, it feels wonderful. Relax ... and thinking ... watch TV or listen to music. It's great. So different."
She may be, as many proclaim, the world's greatest female soccer player, but for nearly 15 years, since she was shipped off, at 13, to the provincial sports school in her native Shanghai, every aspect of Sun Wen's life -- every minute of every day, every week of every year -- has been in Chinese authorities' hands. Now, with plenty credit going to those same officials, she's tasting freedom in America, the biggest name (not counting the homegirls) in the biggest women's soccer league in the world. She'll play down her prodigious talents -- "I just think I'm lucky; everyone has a different strength," she says when best-player talk arises -- but not what the chance to play in the WUSA really means. "I've waited a long time to live normal life," says Sun, 28, winner of the Golden Ball (as MVP) and Golden Boot (as top scorer) at the 1999 Women's World Cup that made the league possible. "When I was in China, we always practice every day, no more off-days. We always stay with the team, always get up at the same time, go to bed at the same time. "Everything was regimented. Everything. When you eat, when you sleep, when you take a nap. Everything." Such regimen, at the heart of China's sporting philosophy, helped mold Sun -- who, once healthy, will drive the Atlanta Beat's attack -- into a player with exquisite vision and touch, agility and quickness, drive and polish. It made her an icon at home and a celebrity of sorts abroad, but hers wasn't a life of privilege. She bunked with teammates, as many as six to a room, and endured a routine that didn't change whether she was at sports school, with her club team or in national team camp. "She says it was much more like the army," says Lauren Gregg, the WUSA's vice president of player personnel, who negotiated seven months with Chinese officials to secure Sun and five other players: goalkeeper Gao Hong (New York), midfielder Liu Ailing (Philadelphia), and defenders Fan Yunjie (San Diego), Wen Lirong (Carolina) and Bai Jie (Washington). Sun's parents initially didn't want her to go to the sports school, "but I want double," she says. Her father, a soldier, and mother, a schoolteacher, supported her soccer-playing but preferred she attend university, as her older sister would. "At the beginning, it was lonely and [I] got much homesick," Sun says. "Also, [my family] lived in the same city, but we weren't allowed to come home, just once a week. So we got home after training on Saturday, sometimes it's dark. The next day we had to come back [to camp] before 8 p.m." WISDOM BEYOND HER YEARS. Sun had never cooked a meal, never driven a car -- never done so many things Americans take for granted -- before arriving in the United States late last year. She underwent knee surgery in December (she'll likely miss the season's first weeks) and began rehab while staying at Gregg's home in Charlottesville, Va. "She's one of the most amazing people I have met -- wise beyond her years," says Gregg, the U.S. women's team's chief assistant for more than a decade. "We had some amazingly intense conversations about life, without being able to talk a lot. "Obviously, she's from a protected environment, and she was here for two months. It was fun for me -- she grew up before me. In a lot of ways she's already grown up, but in a lot of ways she was experiencing things for the first time. It was like having a kid." Sun -- a warm, engaging woman with an easy laugh and playful manner -- found great joy in the simplest things. "She always wanted to vacuum," Gregg says. "I was mortified. But to clean, to take care of a house, to be a normal person ... every minute of every day has been planned for 15 years. We can't envision it." Sun says her first experience in the kitchen -- a bean noodle soup with cabbage and mushrooms -- was "not good -- it was bad." She took a photo anyway. To phone for pizza delivery -- she adores pizza -- Sun wrote out a script: "I like to order pepperoni, mushrooms ..." She's got a learner's permit to drive -- "Speed is 55, but no one [goes 55], so when I drive on the freeway, I'm nervous, sweating ..." -- and she definitely wants a dog. Sun's working hard on her English, and she's made remarkable improvement since joining her Atlanta Beat teammates at the end of February. "I got fast improved when I with the team," she says. "They always talk; I pay attention. Now 50 percent to guess, 25 percent I understand and 25 percent I don't." She uses closed-captioning while watching TV, and tunes into children's shows. "Sesame Street" is a favorite: "They speaking simple words, and slowly, so I can catch more words." PRACTICAL JOKER. Sun's teammates are quickly getting her up to speed on slang. Her vocabulary includes "What up, Homie," "What up, Dawg" and -- Sun's favorite -- "Booty call!" Says Gregg: "She's just adored -- not a surprise -- by her teammates. They've pulled her under their wing right away." "She's opening up a lot now, and she's hilarious," reports Cindy Parlow, who will team with Sun and Canadian forward Charmaine Hooper up front for the Beat. "She's always playing these little practical jokes on people." "She played one on our trainer," Beat coach Tom Stone says. "She went to the van ahead of everybody and hid inside. It's pitch black, and when the trainer got there, she jumps out and screams. It was absolutely hilarious." Sun's also a hit with Atlanta's Chinese community. "They're coming out of the woodwork," says Stone. "Every night she's at a party. She calls them parties; I think they're more dinners. She's a hero to these people." In Charlottesville, while shopping for that first meal, Sun was surrounded at a Chinese market. "They started going crazy," Gregg says. "They're running to get her to sign anything, touching her ... almost in tears. That was an extraordinary moment for me." For Sun Wen, it's all extraordinary. The possibilities before her are mindboggling. She wants to go to school, to learn sports management. She wants to paint, inspired by a Van Gogh exhibit she saw in Boston. So many places to go, so many things to see and experience ... "I don't know [what I want to do]," she says. "I have no idea. I want to [try] painting, everything, doing ... so many choices, so many dreams. "I feel I have not enough time." Scott French is a senior editor at Soccer America magazine.
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