Abby Wambach quotes:

My nephew has type 1 diabetes, and it's my goal and hope that in his lifetime there will be a cure for diabetes. There's no place better to give the money to than the Juvenile Diabetes Association.

It's a heavy burden to look up at the mountain and want to start the climb.

Whenever you get to win, you feel the satisfaction of all of your hard work, all the sacrifices, all the blood, sweat and tears. It feels right and makes you realise that you are really doing the right thing.

During events like the World Cup and the Olympics, I tend to get really wrapped up in my own experience to stay focused, but it's like a bubble. I don't see much outside my own perspective.

I think there's so much emphasis on body image and results and outcome, but really what you should be after is to be healthy and to feel good about yourself.

It's always really challenging trying to go from player to player/coach. You have a kind of friendship basis of relationship with all of your teammates, and now you go to this power position where you have to make decisions that might hurt people's feelings.

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.

One thing I love to do when I'm working out is take my watch off, take my heart strap off, and just run - not for time, not for exertion, but just to get the blood flowing.

Having different people come together and be on a team and win a world championship is literally, I think, the definition of being American.

As professional soccer players, we take our bodies to the extreme. We're the people at the gym that look like we're breaking the machines. Pushing our bodies to the limits is what makes us so strong and capable and Olympians. It's not an easy thing to consistently do over and over again to your body.

I really enjoy helping people out, and I enjoy time spent with kids.

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.

If you break an individual record, it's because of the greatness that comes before you.

I have never once dribbled the whole field and scored a goal by myself.

I think making the referee aware of a situation, there is nothing wrong with that.

Sometimes when you fail, it allows you the opportunity to grow more motivation and get more intense about your training.

The truth is, I've been on a team my whole life. I'm the youngest of 7, so I've been training to be an athlete my whole life.

I'm not in the business of politics.

When I was in college, I learned to really take care of my body and figured out what works best for me and what doesn't work for me when it comes to my nutrition. That helped so much on the field because soccer is such a fitness-oriented game.

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.

This might sound masochistic or narcissistic, I don't know, but when I'm not playing the game, the validations I feel about life are always through the hardships. I relate more to sadness, in a lot of ways, when I'm not playing.

I've always had a dream of owning a restaurant.

From a pretty early age, my mother realized that I was a little bit more gifted and talented than my own age group. So, she moved me over to play with the boys' travel soccer team when I was about 11 years old.

As a competitor, I want to continue to keep turning the chapters and keep challenging myself.

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.

2014 was physically a tough year because I injured my knee, and you know how that goes with your emotions and the mentality.

The growth of women's soccer and women's sports all around the world has been slow.

I would love to be a mum if I'm blessed to have children. My wife and I have those plans.

I always think that struggle can bring out the best in people - or the worst.

I've always been motivated more by negative comments than by positive ones. I know what I do well. Tell me what I don't do well.

Sometimes there has to be a goat on some level, and I'm totally fine with that being me.

I know that I'll end up being a role model for many, many people out there for all kinds of reasons.

I think, as you grow older, you have figure out the best way to utilize not only your body but your skill.

For any athlete growing up, the Olympics is the one thing you watch with your family, and it's the one thing you dream about. Seeing your country's flag go up as you get a gold medal is the best thing you can achieve.

I'm not spending every second thinking about the World Cup, but it's always in my mind when I make choices and decisions.

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.

I have a unique ability to predict the flight of the ball, and my teammates have a unique ability to find me.

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.

I am not a politician by nature, but I will say I think there need to be more women in FIFA, and I would be open to having those conversations when the time is right.

I want to reduce my risks as much as possible and hopefully be able to go to the World Cup fit, ready and healthy.

To win a championship, you have to have a little bit of luck on your side.

My parents, they're the kind of people that didn't want me to get a big head, so they just kept challenging me and challenging me.

You never know if you can actually do something against all odds until you actually do it.

I'm a pretty decent cook. I like to grill. I have a smoker that I love. I love me some steak. And I'll make a huge salad with a ton of vegetables.

The most important thing is to get better at your craft, and concussions and head impacts are a setback.

You can do as many sprints as you want but there's nothing like playing in a 90-minute soccer game. There's no better way to gain your fitness, in my opinion, than playing in consistent games.

As an athlete, you are literally programmed to endure a specific amount of pain.

I'm honestly not the kind of person who wants to step up to a podium, test the microphone and be like, 'Hey, I'm homosexual and this is who I am, hear me roar.' That's not who I am.

Your heart can only take you so far - sometimes the physical body tells you otherwise.

You know me, I'm not that kind of person that cares to unveil all of my personal things to the world because frankly, in terms of my soccer, it doesn't matter.

The minute you step off that podium is the minute you start preparing for the next world championship. That's kind of how I work. You celebrate for a brief moment, then you move on.

Soccer players generally burn through all of their carbohydrate stores by halftime, so how are you going to replace those? That's what we do at halftime.

Any good attacker will always beat a defender who's face-marking you.

Any little touch a defender can make on me when I'm in the air literally moves me. On the ground, I can use my muscle, but in the air, it's harder to fight that off.

There are standards of the game that FIFA governs and promises to uphold.

The most important thing is that sometimes you have to go through hard times to get to the good stuff.

I think that in order to get better as an athlete and to see whatever kind of results you're after, you have to make goals. Whether you write them down or tell someone about them, it's important to set goals for yourself in order to achieve any kind of success.

At the most elite level, your nutrition becomes a lifestyle: it's not something you have to do when you're preparing for Olympic games or World Cup games - you just do it. You're more inclined to eat healthier because it's better for your muscles.

I haven't won a World Cup. There's things that haven't been finished, and I'm not afraid to fall flat on my face trying.

My sole focus is to help bring a World Cup back to the U.S.

I've never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else.

You must not only have competitiveness but ability, regardless of the circumstance you face, to never quit

To watch people push themselves further than they think they can, it's a beautiful thing. It's really human.

No I or individual is better than the team. I've scored no goals just on my own. Every goal I've ever scored has been because of someone else on my team, their excellence, their bravery. And I'm kind of the end product of a collection of a really good vibe, and feeling, and creativity on the field.

If we can trust each other and leave everything-all our hearts-out on the field, I think we're going to have something to come home to and cheer about.

It's not pressure. It's responsibility We put it on ourselves.

I'm not going to tell people how to live their life and I surely wouldn't tell people my life is the way you should be living. People get to choose what they do want to do with their life and I appreciated that.

If given a really great chance, I'm going to put it away every single time.

I don't care who scores the goals, I'm going to leave my human beingness on the field!

Four goals in (16) minutes. Literally I don't even know how that happens especially in a World Cup final.

Playing on turf affects everything, you know, it affects the way the ball rolls, it affects the way the ball bounces, it affects the way you think about whether or not going into a slide. It's kind of a nightmare.

It's always really challenging trying to go from player to player/coach. You have a kind of friendship basis of relationship with all of your teammates and now you go to this power position where you have to make decisions that might hurt people's feelings.