Updates
Fri, Mar 27th 2009, 10:33
Leg healed, stress gone: Abby Wambach gets ready for new WPS
Abby Wambach was still in the ambulance, the morphine easing the pain from her broken leg, when she got a call phone from her hero, mentor and friend Mia Hamm.
The conversation – between the most prolific international goal-scorer of all time and the person would could very well take over that title someday – began like something from the theatre of the absurd.
“She said, ‘What are you doing, why are you picking up?”’ Wambach said. “I’m like, ‘Why are you calling me if you didn’t want to talk?”’
As they shared information about the injury, Hamm was as devastated as Wambach. The fracture, from a collision with a Brazilian player during an exhibition game on July 16, would keep the United States’ most powerful scoring threat out of the women’s soccer tournament at the Beijing Olympics.
“She knew what an impact I would be,” Wambach said, “and she knew how difficult it was going to be.”
Hamm, who lives only 10 minutes from Wambach in Southern California, would bring her twins over to Wambach’s house as a sort of divert-your-mind therapy. Wambach watched every minute of every game on television, occasionally yelling at the screen as her teammates won the gold.
Wambach also chilled out. She played the guitar, read a lot and went surfing once her leg would permit it. The downtime led to a realization: Before the injury, she had worn herself to a perfection-driven frazzle trying to be The Next Mia Hamm.
“I definitely did a lot of soul searching,” Wambach said. “Why did I break my leg? Why the timing? Why then? I think I really need to consider what this game meant to me and why I played it. I was stressed during that time going into the Olympics, and that’s not what brings the best out of me. I couldn’t show it to anybody. I didn’t want anybody to know – and that’s the game. It’s a really big mind game when you’re going into a world event like that. It’s comical how stressed I was, because then I’m laying on my couch with a broken leg, I’m like, ‘Why was I even thinking about being so stressed? It’s a game.’
“And so when they won, it was even more calming to me, like, ‘I’m really not all that important.’ Of course I am, but I’m not the end-all and be-all.”
Comments
rachele lajoie | on 29/3/09
i am a huge fan. when i turned 10 in nov. my dad got me an abby wambach shirt. i am so excited to watch you play to night. good luck!
