ATHENS - She had the best view of the whole thing. Heather Mitts saw it better than Abby Wambach, and it was Abby Wambach's head that won the gold medal.

Mitts was behind Brazil's goal in the second overtime, warmups still on, bouncing up and down, running in place, trying to stay loose. The American women had already played 112 minutes of soccer at a bruising pace and, well, you never know when your name might be called.

Mitts, a St. Ursula grad, didn't play much in the Olympics. She didn't figure to, not on a team dominated with older players bucking for legend status. On Thursday night, she didn't play at all. She might have missed the blood and sweat, but she didn't miss the significance.

"I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for them," said Mitts.

She was talking about the Fab Five. Or, if you prefer, the '91ers, the five women on the team who blazed such an athletic, social and cultural trail for the last 14 years, who now are retiring. From oldest to youngest, they are Brandi Chastain and Joy Fawcett, 36; Julie Foudy and Kristine Lilly, 33; and Mia Hamm, 32.

They are old enough to be soccer moms, not soccer players. Fawcett is just that, in fact, a mother of three daughters. She breast-fed them on the sidelines during practices.

The Five won the World Cup in 1991, launching a generation of hyperkinetic girls sprinting for the shin-guards section of the sporting goods store. They followed it up with a gold medal at the '96

Olympics and another World Cup title in 1999.

Along the way, they did one of the hardest things. They expanded the world for an entire generation of little girls. The '91ers weren't the first, of course. Billie Jean King, among others, gave girls permission to dream against the grain.

But the '91ers made it permanent. It's no longer different to be an athlete and a female. "Feminine athlete" isn't an oxymoron. If the '91ers are seeking a legacy, they must look past the championships and the glory, to a 12-year-old in Cincinnati, watching them on TV.

Heather Mitts is, in some small measure, the fruit of their labors. Mitts, now 26, owes a little of who she is - and who she can be - to Hamm, Foudy, Fawcett and the rest.

Mitts gets this, which is why she went from legend to legend in the locker room after the 2-1 win Thursday and said, "Thank you for all of this. You paved the way for women's soccer. You have been an inspiration to every little girl, at some point in her life."

The dreams are no longer subject to limits. Mitts has so many options. She can be a soccer player. Or a television broadcaster. She can model. She can do whatever she wants.

In fact, the thought occurs that Mitts has so many choices, her soccer might suffer from the buffet of her future.

She did some studio analysis for ABC and ESPN last year, during the women's World Cup. "She has all the makings of someone who's going to be very successful in television," says Bill Graff, a former producer for soccer at ESPN.

Her agent, Michael Steinberg, says: "Heather is one of the best soccer players in the world and happens to be drop-dead gorgeous. She has the potential to create her own brand, similar to Anna Kournikova. The difference is, Heather can actually play her sport."

She has an apparel contract with adidas. She was named Hottest Female Athlete in an ESPN.com poll. There's just so much out there.

Mitts says her world will remain narrowed to soccer. "Especially now, since I didn't play in the Olympics. I'm more motivated than I've ever been in my life to get back out there and play."

For now, she'll settle for the best seat in the house to watch the gold-medal goal. "We saw that ball coming in and we said, 'This is in the back of the net.' We could tell. We knew it," said Mitts.

Maybe four years from now, it will be Mitts' head that gets in the way of a soccer ball.

The future is an open road and full tank of gas for Heather Mitts. That's been her doing, most of it. But save some praise for the '91ers, whose road she will follow.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com