With a leaping, full-throated roar, Natasha Kai bound off the turf yesterday at Worker's Stadium in Beijing after the United States' Olympic gold medal soccer victory over Brazil.

If there is one thing you can say about the former Kahuku High and UH star, it is that she has never hid her emotions. She wears them — not to mention a gallery of tattoos — on her arm, headband and elsewhere.

On this day Kai, one of the Golden Girls for the U.S., would have plenty to scream to the dripping heavens as her feet — one shoe in red, the other in white — jubilantly defied gravity.

There was an abundance to celebrate. In addition to helping the U.S. restake its claim to supremacy with the redemptive 1-0 victory over Brazil, there is what it meant at home, too. It has been 52 years since an athlete born and raised in Hawai'i had won or shared a gold medal.

Not since Ford Konno, Yoshinobu Oyakawa and William Woolsey won in swimming in 1956 has a keiki o ka aina brought home the gold.

Once Hawai'i built an impressive stockpile for a place so small. Before becoming a state, Hawai'i was worth its weight in gold, beginning with Duke Kahanamoku in 1912 and on through the swimmers of the 1950's, the territory amassing 14 of them by homegrown and raised swimmers.

But when the swimming dominance ended, so, too, did the gold rush. At least until yesterday when Kai and the soccer team set an example for the women's volleyball team and its Hawai'i contingent to add to.

And though she didn't see action until the final 11 minutes of yesterday triumph, Kai definitely had a foot in the road to the gold. Without Kai, who drilled the winning goal in OT to beat Canada, 2-1, maybe the U.S. doesn't get to the semis. Or, any medal.

What Kai, who played in all six games, brought to the U.S. was more than scoring ability and a fresh, late-match pair of legs. For a team playing without leading scorer Abby Wambach (broken leg) and top defender Cat Whitehill (knee injury) in Beijing, Kai also supplied toughness and energy.

Rarely was that more evident than when Kai came off the bench to replace Wambach, scoring the goal that beat Brazil, 1-0, in July. Its significance was huge, not only taking some of the air out of the Brazilians, who had humiliated the U.S., 4-0, months before in the World Cup semis, but showing the U.S. it could win without Wambach.

In Beijing, Kai wore on her white headband the names of the missing players. Her play and attitude, however, said even more.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.