A year later, it's shirts off for Brandi

MELBOURNE, Australia - This time, Brandi Chastain kept her shirt on. Those around her did not.

When the U.S. women's soccer team visited the U.S. women's basketball team's locker room after a weekend exhibition game, the hoopsters did their own version of the Brandi Salute - stripping off their jerseys and twirling them over their heads, just as Chastain did after scoring the winning penalty kick in the World Cup final a year ago.

''They kind of relived it for me,'' Chastain said. ''A good 75 percent of them.''

As the soccer team prepares for Thursday's Olympic first-round match against Norway, no one has forgotten Chastain's moment of exhilaration.

When the players walk the streets here and explain which sport they play, locals frequently ask which player removed her shirt.

Not that Chastain minds. Sure, the moment has been called everything from exhibitionism to crass commercialism to spontaneous, harmless fun. Whatever. It made an international star out of someone seemingly born to be a celebrity, someone who can take the jokes and respond with some of her own.

''Other than her bank account changing, she's the same as she was,'' defender Kate Sobrero said. ''That's Brandi. Everything you think she is, she is. The fame and everything has not affected her at all. She's perfect for it.''

While the defender nicknamed ''Hollywood'' hasn't changed, her life has. She did the ''What's up with the shirt?'' commercial with Kevin Garnett. She's thrown out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game. At other public appearances, promoters and fans wonder - and sometimes ask - if she'll reprise her jersey removal.

Chastain always says no, but she loves to play along. Speaking at a formal Olympic dinner in Washington earlier this year, she joked about ripping off her dress.

''People ask me, 'Aren't you sick of it?' I say, 'Well, if it means that people are thinking about soccer ... .' The message wasn't taking off the jersey. The important part was what happened during the game. ... In the past it was usually me preaching about the game, and now it's people asking me about it.''

Chastain has maintained that the moment was simply a celebration and was not preplanned either to promote herself or as a hidden deal with Nike, which made the black sports bra she wore underneath.

Men and women routinely lift or take off their jerseys to celebrate goals, and there was no way to predict the final against China would go to a penalty shootout and that Chastain would have the last kick.

''There was no conjuring this whole plan beforehand,'' Chastain said.

There have been long debates as to whether Chastain set back women's sports with her momentary show of flesh or moved them ahead with a brave show of liberation. Often lost with that debate is the skewed image of a very good soccer player.

''There's a dual thing going on there,'' coach April Heinrichs said. ''There's the issue of her taking her shirt off. In that regard, she's become very, very popular. She's also a pretty face. That's the nature of where we are in athletics. Some of us are still there. The next step is for us to recognize what a truly great soccer player she is among truly great soccer players''

Chastain has been a regular on the national team since 1996. She is eighth all-time with 132 games played, and her 23 goals is second all-time among defenders behind Joy Fawcett's 24.

Staying in shape was her problem early in her career, but - as her jersey-toss showed - she has muscles that would put many male athletes to shame. She also is an intelligent student of the game, even spending her honeymoon at the 1998 men's World Cup in France.

''The attention is on the exterior rather than on the quality of play between the white lines,'' Heinrichs said. ''There are some great players that no one ever notices. Joy Fawcett, Kate Sobrero, Kristine Lilly. If you compare Brandi to her teammates, there are other players as worthy as well.''

But Chastain is the only one who's ever put on a special celebration at the Rose Bowl in front of the largest American television audience ever for a soccer game.

''Timing and opportunity collide,'' Heinrichs said. ''And that was last summer was for Brandi.''