BRACE FOR THE PAPARAZZI

By CHRIS DUFRESNE

July 23, 1996 12 AM PT

Remember when women soccer players could go out for a bite and not be hassled by adoring fans?

“Now we have people following our bus, we’re getting standing ovations in the stadium,” U.S. forward Michelle Akers said. “We feel like a professional sport at last, and we are excited.”

Akers, who lives in Central Florida, has become a celebrity in Orlando, one of the sites for Olympic soccer.

“I go to a movie, and people ask for autographs,” she said. “I go to make a bank deposit, they ask for my autograph. I buy a bagel somewhere, and they run after me in the parking lot. It’s crazy. And I love it.”

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Olympics

Chris Dufresne

Chris Dufresne was the Los Angeles Times’ national college football/basketball columnist from 1995 to 2015. He also covered skiing at the Winter Olympics and wrote extensively on most sports. He is a multiple national award winner and was named 2011 California Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Assn. A Los Angeles native, he started at The Times in 1976 as a truck loader and literally worked his way up (two floors to be exact).

BRACE FOR THE PAPARAZZI

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