A Gold-Medal Welcome : ‘Fawcett Fanatics’ Greet the Olympic Soccer Star

For the past week, whenever anyone asked 2-year-old Katelyn Fawcett where her mother was or what she did, Katelyn had a simple answer: “She’s wearing the gold medal.”

When Joy Fawcett, the U.S. soccer team’s star defender, finally arrived home Wednesday, Katelyn gave the gold a quick once-over and turned her attention elsewhere. It will be a few years before Katelyn understands what “Mama Joy” went through to get it.

That was not the case with the rest of Fawcett’s enormous Huntington Beach clan. More than a dozen of them, wearing “Fawcett Fanatic” T-shirts, greeted their gold medal kin at John Wayne Airport, chanting “USA! USA!” so vigorously that other travelers found themselves joining in.

And when Fawcett pulled the box containing her gold medal out of a paper bag, the crowd went crazy.

“It’s like nothing I ever imagined,” said the low-key Fawcett, holding Katelyn on her hip. “It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl.”

Fawcett, 28, regarded as one of the sport’s finest players, made the key steal that set up the team’s game-winning goal in its 2-1 victory over China in the gold-medal match Aug. 1.

On Wednesday morning, President Clinton singled out the team at a White House reception for the Olympic team athletes.

“He said, ‘I’d like you guys to teach me how to do the belly slide,’ ” said Fawcett, referring to the stomach slides team members did after scoring.

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The Olympics were a dream come true for Fawcett’s family, the Biefelds, too. Nineteen of them trooped to Georgia to watch the gold medal match along with 75,081 others.

“It was thunderous,” remembered her mother, Beverly Biefeld. “We got chills. We stood there and cried.”

All of the eight Biefeld children were soccer players. Brother Eric is a former UCLA star who helped the Bruins win a national championship in 1985.

At home, the backyard was barren. “We never had any plants in the yard because they would kill them,” Beverly Biefeld said, laughing.

Fawcett started playing at 7 and spent hours smacking the ball against the back fence. By the time she hit Edison High School in Huntington Beach, everyone knew she was going to be a star.

“She had a determination to take it one step farther than the rest of us,” said younger sister, Kelly Biefeld, 26.

The medal was especially sweet for Fawcett, Kelly Biefeld said, “because of all she’s been through.”

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Two years ago, Fawcett, the team’s only mother, continued to work out through her eighth month of pregnancy, then returned to practice two weeks after Katelyn was born.

She has had to pick up and move her family to Florida, where the team trains, for six months out of the last two years. Then last year, she broke her ankle at the Olympic Festival.

And there has been the depressing lack of recognition. Despite the massive turnout for their games, NBC televised only 30 minutes of the final match.

Still, she said, “It’s definitely the highlight of my life. We won the World Cup in 1991, but no one even knew about it. Nobody showed up like this at the airport.”

Fawcett said she plans to continue playing as long as she’s able. But she knows that a fierce new crop of players, inspired by her success, is on its way up.

As for now, there’s no time to rest on her laurels, or for that matter her Foothill Ranch couch. On Monday, Fawcett has to be back at work coaching the UCLA women’s team.