Abby Wambach
Abby Wambach
Mary Abigail "Abby" Wambachis an American retired soccer player, coach, two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women's World Cup champion. A six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, Wambach has been a regular on the U.S. women's national soccer team since 2003 earning her first cap in 2001. As a forward, she currently stands as the highest all-time goal scorer for the national team and holds the world record for international goals for both female and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSoccer Player
Date of Birth2 June 1980
CityRochester, NY
CountryUnited States of America
When I was really young, the women's national team wasn't on a grand media stage, so my role models were male basketball and male American football players.
When I look in the mirror, I don't see a person who's made the kind of impact that Mia Hamm made on the game. She's still my idol, the greatest player and the greatest teammate. She achieved so much in so many different ways. What she did for women's soccer can't be measured.
My teammates have put me in all different kinds of positions to score goals, and I can't say it enough, and I really through and through believe it in my heart that I'm only as good as my teammates allow me to be.
My eldest sister Beth is a doctor who studied at Harvard and Columbia and played basketball for Harvard. She set the athletic and academic standard for the rest of us to follow.
I hope we can get to a point where women players are being paid properly all around the world so the only thing they have to worry about is playing football and playing football alone.
I don't care how many championships you've won or how many records you've broken - if you've had a hand in pushing forward not only a game but women in sport's movement, then I think that's pretty darn good.
I can't speak for other people, but for me, I feel like gone are the days that you need to come out of a closet. I never felt like I was in a closet. I never did. I always felt comfortable with who I am and the decisions I made.
As soon as I started to realize that I could make a living playing professional soccer, I went to that place where I could torture myself because I knew it would make me better for the championship game.
Your heart can only take you so far - sometimes the physical body tells you otherwise.
When you can score three goals without the most prolific scorer in the world, you know you have a lot of depth, and it gives you confidence.
The most important thing is to get better at your craft, and concussions and head impacts are a setback.
The growth of women's soccer and women's sports all around the world has been slow.
Sometimes if you have a coach or team-mates for too long, you get caught in certain routines. I think it's good to shake up things a little bit.
People don't think an athlete nowadays can have a team-first mentality and I do.