I believe it's our responsibility to show our communities the value of all people, to celebrate different, and to take a stand for acceptance and inclusion.
Julie Foudy
Sports build good habits, confidence, and discipline. They make players into community leaders and teach them how to strive for a goal, handle mistakes, and cherish growth opportunities.
Life doesn't just happen. You happen to life. You decide how you want to write your story.
Sports not only build better athletes but also better people.
It is so easy to be pleasant and charming and positive when life is going swimmingly well. You are winning. You are healthy. You are happy. But what happens when life throws darts at you?
Do your homework. Find your voice. Be authentic. And then dive in with purpose.
The ebb and flow of daily life can lead to wonderful highs, crushing lows, and everything in between.
If there is one certainty in soccer, it is this: The quickest road to becoming a winning soccer team is to have a great goalkeeper.
For too long, I equated leadership with a position. I thought leaders were presidents or politicians or celebrities or four-star generals with a horse and sword.
With acceptance comes opportunities. And with opportunities come numbers and, most importantly, hope.
Whether you empower one person or the free world, that is leadership.
I have non-breaking news for you: FIFA does not care what you think. Over the years, FIFA has never seemed influenced by what is written or said in papers, articles, tweets, blogs, and on television about how it operates.
I have these vivid - some fabulous, some not so fabulous - childhood memories of driving to Lake Tahoe.
Yes, Clay Matthews has a long, golden, Fabio-esque flowing mane that most women would chick-slap someone for. And yes, the shiny, beautiful, dark locks that cascade out of Troy Polamalu's helmet are the envy of volume-challenged women and bald men everywhere. But do we need to talk about it incessantly?
When I think about Abby Wambach's last days with the U.S. team, I am reminded of her first days with the U.S. team. The 21-year-old came bouncing in, laughing, joking and, of course, talking. An enormous personality matched only by her thirst for purpose. Because Abby didn't subscribe to external boundaries or predetermined molds.
When I was growing up, you couldn't watch soccer on TV. But now, you can get it on every channel, every hour of the day, every day, literally.
I don't know if there's any sport that's stupid, but I really don't understand curling. I guess I'm just not into brooms on ice.
I understand every parent has a different risk threshold. And I realize life is full of risks, even including harmful chemicals that we interact with on a daily basis.
I'd always thought leadership was a CEO or president or person in a position of power. And honestly, to me, that meant a man - because that's what I was reading about in history books growing up.
People will say, 'Who are your role models, and who are your pioneers?' And the first person that comes to my mind is Billie Jean King because we didn't have women that we could watch when I was growing up.
You don't need a title. You don't need a degree in business organization or be trained in the finer arts of persuasion. You just need to believe you can lead. So start there. Start believing.
I tried Zumba, but I laughed the entire time! I was so bad, it's embarrassing.
It all comes down to perspective. When I get crabby about something, like the delay that was driving me crazy because I told my kids I'd be home for dinner, I have to remind myself where it fits in the scheme of things. We have to say, 'That's life,' which can sometimes be comforting.
That's the neat thing about the Olympics - so many of these athletes, they don't make a ton of money, they train for four years to compete, and they realize, 'Look, this is a blessing that I have this chance to represent the United States of America.'
My teammates and I are best known for our penalty kick victory against China to win the 1999 Women's World Cup. But a lot of people don't realize that when we were first playing soccer on the Women's National Team, the Women's World Cup didn't exist. In fact, Women's Soccer wasn't even in the Olympics.
In the end, we all seek one thing in life, regardless of gender: to be recognized for the hard work we have done and to leave our sport or business or entity in a better place than when we came in.
Having a love-hate relationship with road trips is inevitable.
Most sports federations, corporations, and governments don't change voluntarily. Change is brought by the disenfranchised demanding better.
In countries or places where an appropriate grass surface is not an option, then turf is indeed a great alternative. But that is only when grass does not or cannot grow.
I will forever be fascinated by how people deal with adversity, how people react in moments of crisis, or how people behave when life gets uncomfortable.
Penalty kicks are so much about confidence and your mentality going into them. If you go walk up to a kick and you're not sure where you're gonna place it, or you're feeling a little uneasy, that's when you often miss it.
If you don't think a small act can make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room.
I want to go back to college for sure! Who doesn't, right? All your bills are paid for. You're there with all of your friends.
Leadership is loud. It is quiet. It is thoughtful and emotional and cerebral and nerdy and goofy and joyful and motivating.
We women are great at underselling ourselves and not so great at owning our awesome.
In so many ways, my soccer career taught me about seeing the value of all people, whether or not society sees it first. Relationships with people who are perceived to be 'different' have taught me the same lesson.
Inequality brings a visceral reaction. We fought many years to bring others to believe in what was possible with women's soccer, in this country and globally. Now that the possible is being realized in this country, the American women should be compensated accordingly.
Once I was walking with teammate Joy Fawcett in a hotel in Haiti. We were barefoot, and the lights went out to save electricity. Joy felt something crunch beneath her feet, and she felt the need to shine her flashlight on the floor. It was, I swear, a five-foot cockroach.
I remember the first time I played on a synthetic turf field. I thought, 'Wow, this is amazing. What is this stuff?' It seemed so much better than that concrete-like Astro Turf that was essentially just a green, thin carpet over hard ground.
The Women's World Cup gives FIFA a chance, once every four years, to showcase the growth of women's soccer. It gives FIFA a highly visible opportunity to encourage countries around the globe to also support their women's programs. It gives FIFA the forum to show countries the potential of women's soccer if only you support it.
I once thought about being a doctor, but then I'd have to work for a living.
It's so valuable to learn that when you put yourself in an uncomfortable situation, you'll be fine, and you'll probably come out even stronger.
We love to make sure all the boxes are checked - that we aren't just prepared but over-prepared before we raise our hand. It's that discipline that I love most about women, but it's also what holds us women back the most because by the time we raise our hand, that opportunity is often gone.
I grew up watching the Lakers and the Dodgers and the Rams, all local men's professional teams, and never really had any women that I grew up watching.
Sports help women stay in school longer and make them less likely to use drugs, break the law, or get pregnant at an early age.
With loss comes growth.
I am all about big breakfasts - I love carby stuff in the morning.
Girls are so quick to say they can't do something, and they won't even try, whereas boys tend to just go for something even if it's probably a bad idea.
My role models were all men. I grew up - I was a big 1980s Laker fan: you know, the years of Worthy, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and, you know, eight-foot-tall men that I could never emulate, and then these big 300-pound football players.
I have been involved with U.S. Soccer for 30 years, and I don't remember one senior woman in the organization that you would deal with on a daily basis in a position that was making decisions. That is a huge issue. How many times do you hear, 'There are no women around?' Well, they are fishing in the wrong pond.
