Throw a mountain in the path of Michelle Akers and you've made her day. Tell Michelle she can't do something, and the Olympic gold-medalist says, "Watch me." It's the unattainable--the very challenge of it--that fuels the fire of the most decorated woman in soccer history. What else accounts for scoring more than 100 international goals while overcoming concussions, lost teeth, countless stitches, broken bones and 13 knee surgeries? Thirteen knee surgeries? "I think that's the right number," Michelle says. "I lost count somewhere around 10 or 11. I'd have to check with my doc to be sure."

To be sure, the 5-10 midfielder demonstrates the passion and drive every coach wishes they could bottle by the gallon and dispense to their players. And that same fire fuels her faith. "Whatever Michelle does," says Steve Douglass, executive vice president of Campus Crusade for Christ, "she does wholeheartedly. It's what's made her a great athlete and usable to the Lord."

As a young girl growing up in Seattle, Michelle was the pig-tailed spitfire with the double knee-patches on her jeans. She grew to be the lanky tomboy who cried because her teacher told her that girls don't play football. "My dream was to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers like Mean Joe Greene," says Michelle, now 33, "and one day win the Super Bowl by catching the Hail Mary pass as the last second on the scoreboard ticked down."

To harness some of her daughter's energy, Michelle's mom signed her up for all sorts of sports: softball, basketball, volleyball and soccer. In high school, soccer became the teenager's one true love. By college, Michelle had become an All-America, earning ESPN's woman athlete of the year in 1985--the same year the United States formed its first women's national team, where Michelle became a starter.

In 1991 the U.S. team won the Women's World Cup and Michelle scored 10 goals in five games, including the championship winner. She signed an endorsement deal and became the first woman soccer player with a paid sponsor. She played professionally in Sweden. Mountains were moving, and Michelle's drive and tenacity were beginning to pay off.

But just as her star was rising, Michelle's health was declining. By 1993, the woman who used sheer grit and determination to make life happen found herself unable to manage day-to-day living. "Each day I felt like I had flown to Europe with no food or sleep, then flown right back and trained for hours," Michelle says. She suffered from Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, a debilitating disease affecting more than half a million adult Americans: "When it was really bad I couldn't sit up in a chair. The racking migraines stranded me at home, unable even to get up to brush my teeth or find something to eat."

For the first time, Michelle could no longer count on her old friends--strength and hard work. She had to find a new way to cope. But finding that new way became the tallest mountain Michelle had ever faced. "I couldn't bear not to be the best in the world, not to be the one who could bounce back from any injury," she says. "I couldn't face giving up that identity. It was the only me I knew." Then in 1994 her marriage broke up, and Michelle reached the very end of herself.

Michelle had put her trust in Christ as a high-school student, but ignored God in college and after graduation. Now sick and alone, Michelle began attending church in Orlando, FL, where she lived and trained. Although she couldn't articulate it at the time, in retrospect Michelle says she knew she "needed to get things right with God."

"You can have this body," she told God. "You can have this life, because I've made a mess of everything."

Sitting in church one Sunday, Michelle sensed God saying He wanted her to use her soccer platform to tell people about Him. The thought so terrified the athlete that Michelle fled the building immediately: "I was scared to death of what people would think of me--the tough, independent soccer player--reading the Bible and preaching the gospel."

But the thought stayed with her, and Michelle's growing faith was soon tested. Just a few minutes into the first match of the 1995 Women's World Cup in Sweden, Michelle was knocked unconscious and tore the medial collateral ligament in her right knee. She was out of the tournament, and her favored team finished a disappointing third. "The amazing thing was that I was at peace," Michelle says. "Yes, I was disappointed. Yes, I cried for weeks. But I knew the circumstance was for a reason. That thinking was pretty new to me."

Also new to Michelle were a handful of Christian friends: a strength coach, some women in a Bible study and a family from church. She began to gain confidence in God's calling and approached Steve Douglass (a soccer coach himself) and his wife, Judy, for help. Sitting in an Einstein Brothers Bagels shop together, the Douglasses explained the importance of accountability, a good church, prayer and Bible study. Then Steve, a Harvard MBA, jotted out a detailed and strategic plan for Michelle's ministry. "At times I'm reluctant to tell [Steve] the wild dreams God keeps putting on my heart," Michelle says. "He makes these things happen!"

When Michelle is not traveling with the national team, she returns phone calls, plays with her kitty, B.W.; and speaks at churches, youth groups and high schools (above).

Along with a team of people from Campus Crusade and her church, Michelle founded Soccer Outreach International--a ministry committed to using the worldwide platform of soccer to tell people about Christ. Fans have purchased more than 8,000 copies of her evangelistic autobiography and hundreds of cassettes of her testimony. From her Web site, Michelle receives e-mail from people whose countries are closed to the gospel but crazy about soccer.

SOI's most ambitious project surrounds the Women's World Cup, currently being held in seven American cities. The ministry is training churches and soccer fans to capitalize on history's largest women's sporting event. "It's ironic," says Michelle. "This summer I'm more excited about the outreaches than I am about playing."

"Moofasa," as Michelle is called by her teammates because of her "Lion King" mane, faced her latest mountain just four months before the 1999 World Cup. Michelle and a Norwegian player both vied for a header when they collided. Michelle's face was broken in three places around her left eye; she also required 25 stitches and suffered a concussion.

"I used to get upset about injuries and missing games," Michelle says, "but now I'm much better at seeing God's hand in all things. When my body gets thrashed, I immediately see how frail I am, and how undependable and disappointing the world is. God is the only one who can be trusted completely."

After this summer's World Cup and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Michelle plans to hang up her cleats but continue in ministry. "There are 18 million Americans involved in soccer and billions more worldwide," Michelle says. "We're going after every one for Christ." A lofty challenge, no doubt. But a mountain any smaller would never capture the attention of someone as indomitable as Michelle.