U.S. Olympic women's teams have something to prove in Beijing

During the last several years, Abby Wambach had become the go-to spokeswoman for her U.S. soccer team. Which makes sense, as she also evolved into the go-to scorer.

"I live for this game," Wambach said earlier this year as she looked forward to the Beijing Olympics. "When we take breaks, I oftentimes wish I was back in camp practicing with my teammates."

Now, though, Wambach will have to take a break at the worst possible time. She suffered a broken tibia and fibula in her left leg during a match against Brazil on Wednesday in San Diego.

With that, the Americans lost their best scorer (99 career goals) and one of the strongest emotional forces on the team. At the Athens Olympics final against Brazil four years ago, Wambach scored the winning goal on a header in overtime, sending retiring U.S. women's soccer legends such as Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett out with one more gold medal.

There was a definite sense going into these Olympics that it really was time for the newer generation of women's soccer players to step forward. But that's even more the case now that Wambach will not be able to compete in the Summer Games. Lauren Cheney, a 20-year-old who'll be a junior at UCLA this fall, is the alternate who will replace Wambach on the U.S. team.

Cheney is one of three collegiate players on the team, along with North Carolina's Tobin Heath and Southern Cal's Amy Rodriguez.

However, the soccer team isn't the only U.S. women's squad that goes into these Olympics with something to prove. The women's basketball team lost in its last major international event, the 2006 World Championships. Australia won the gold there.

And the softball squad feels the difficult-to-remedy burden of trying to show its sport deserves reinstatement to the Olympics after this tournament. In a 2005 vote - for which it is difficult not to discern some anti-Americanism - softball and baseball were removed from the future schedule by the International Olympic Committee.

Therefore, the U.S. softball team - which has won all three previous Olympic tournaments - plays with somewhat of a sense of desperation about what happens after Beijing.

Of course, it's important to put these three U.S. programs in some historical perspective. Because they converged a dozen years ago in a watershed time for women's athletics.

The U.S. women's basketball, soccer and softball teams played in front of capacity crowds at the Atlanta Games in 1996. All won their respective golds and made significant steps forward for women athletes.

In the years since, those three sports started pro leagues in the United States to greater and lesser degrees of success. The only one with staying power has been the WNBA, the hoops league that will suspend its 12th season for a month during the Beijing Games and then pick it up again Aug. 28.

But the impact of the 1999 Women's World Cup - culminating with its sold-out finale in the Rose Bowl - and the public recognition of softball standouts such as Jennie Finch are both important measuring sticks for women's sports. To show how much progress is made - but also how it hasn't always been kept up.

Not to mention what needs to happen for continued American success in international events.

The U.S. soccer team took bronze - after a controversial goalkeeper switch rocked the Americans - in the Women's World Cup last year. Brazil pounded the U.S. in the semifinals of that event but then lost in the final to Germany.

So even with Wambach, the Americans had their work cut out for them to take gold in Beijing. Now, they'll need players such as Natasha Kai, 25, and Lindsay Tarpley, 24, to amp up their offense.