Cindy Parlow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Competitor for United States
Olympic medal record
Women's Football (soccer)
Gold	Atlanta 1996	Team Competition
Silver	Sydney 2000	Team Competition
Gold	Athens 2004	Team Competition

Cindy Parlow (born May 8, 1978) is an American professional soccer player. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, she played college soccer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a four-time All-American and member of three teams that won the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship. She won the Hermann Trophy as outstanding female collegiate soccer player twice, in 1997 and 1998, and the ACC Female Athlete of the Year in 1999.

She began training with the U.S. Women's National Team in March 1995, making her first appearance (and scoring her first goal) in a January 4, 1996 friendly against Russia. She started all six games for the United States during their 1999 World Cup victory, scoring two goals. She was also a member of the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic teams, as well as the 2003 Women's World Cup team.

She was a founding member of the Women's United Soccer Association, and played for the Atlanta Beat, helping her team reach the playoffs in each of the league's three seasons of operation (2001-2003).

On July 30, 2006, she announced her retirement from international play, citing post-concussion syndrome. She concluded her career with 158 caps (the ninth most in United States Women's National team history) and 75 goals (fifth best). She did, however, leave the door open for a possible return to professional play domestically in a hypothetical reconstituted version of the WUSA.