Lifestyle
Abby Wambach has won 2 gold medals. She says real success came later : Wild Card with Rachel Martin
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: We’ve all got unexpected turns in our lives, right? But let’s be honest, some people have more than most. And I am going to put Abby Wambach in that camp. Here’s the short version of what went down.
She’s this global U.S. soccer star with two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup championship. She also holds the U.S. goal scoring record for women and men. She’s on top of the world. When she retires from soccer in 2015, life becomes disorienting. And it turns out she’s been hiding a drinking problem, and roughly five months later she gets a DUI. Then comes rehab, and a personal reckoning.
She writes a book about all of it, then goes to an event to promote said book and ends up meeting the woman who would become her second wife, the author Glennon Doyle. Now she’s the stepmom of three kids, a leadership coach, and the co-host of the hit podcast she does with Doyle called We Can Do Hard Things.
I mean, she’s only 44 and Abby Wambach has lived at least three lives. And in her show, you hear all the stuff Wambach has learned in those lives.
And if for any reason you are feeling a little bit down, watch Wambach’s winning goal against Brazil in the 2004 gold medal Olympics match (it’s at 2:07:30 in the clip below). Just do it. You will feel happier. Trust me.
This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests randomly-selected questions from a deck of cards. Tap play above to listen to the full podcast, or read an excerpt below.
Question 1: When you were bored as a kid, where would your imagination take you?
Abby Wambach: When I was growing up, there weren’t any women athletes to watch on television. It was just basically, you know, Michael Jordan. And so I saw him win a lot of championships after scoring those last-second points. And so when I was bored, I would imagine a ball kind of coming in from the sideline into the box and I would imagine myself scoring the goal in the last second.
So when those moments started to actually happen, I had played through this moment so often in my head. And because of the imagining, I never stopped believing that we could have that one moment come to fruition. And people ask me all the time, “How did you score so many big goals in such important moments?” And there’s a lot of reasons for it, but I think one of the first steps is believing and imagining that you can do it before you do it.
Rachel Martin: I mean, that’s so powerful. Now, everybody talks about manifesting, right? Like, you just think it and then it can happen. But that’s like a very clear example of doing that.
Wambach: Yeah. I mean, my wife, it drives her nuts because I’m such an optimist and sometimes that can steer me awry. But if you want something in your life, it’s not just that you are ready for it, it’s that this moment has already happened.
Question 2: Has your idea of success changed over time?
Wambach: I don’t think it necessarily has changed. I think the context of my life has changed. It’s a feeling of self-esteem that I think determined my success. My definition of success is, how do I feel about myself today?
Because I’ve had high levels of success. And I know for certain, when we watch the gold medal ceremonies at the Olympics, the athletes that are standing on that top podium are going to feel really good about themselves. But that moment is fleeting. You have to wake up tomorrow and also feel good about yourself.
Martin: Without all the fanfare.
Wambach: Yeah. And I think that having a gold medal is really cool. I think it’s really cool. But let me tell you, a couple weeks away from the Olympics after getting a gold medal, I still have to look at myself in the mirror and say, “How do I feel about myself today? What did I do today to feel good?”
I can’t rely on being an Olympic gold medal winner and having that be the thing that sustains me throughout my life. Because it doesn’t work. Things that we do in the past will not justify how we feel in the present. And so I think that my idea of success hasn’t changed, because I’ve always kind of held this belief, but I think my definition of what makes me feel good every day has changed throughout my life.
Question 3: Are you comfortable with being forgotten?
Wambach: I am. When I retired, Gatorade pitched me on a possible commercial shoot that they wanted to do for my retirement game. And as I was reading through the storyboards, I just started to weep because the idea of this commercial was, “Forget me.” Because if I am forgotten, then I know that the game has grown and the game is better. If I am forgotten, then somebody else has taken my place. And that is the natural order of the world.
I believe that records are meant to be broken. I believe that growth, especially 10 years ago where we were with women’s soccer, was required, was necessary, was not just possible, but inevitable. So I think that we all should live a life like that. I think we should all lay our cards out, leave it on the field, whatever you want to say. And then in the end, if you are forgotten, it means that you have done the right kind of work here to make the world a little bit better by having existed.
The funniest thing about this is I was coaching my kid’s rec league team about five or six years ago. And we were warming up for the championship game. I was telling them about when I retired from playing soccer. And one of the players said, “Wait, you played soccer?” I said, “Yes.” And she said, “Who did you play for?” And I said, “The United States of America.” And she said, “Oh. Do you know Alex Morgan?” And I was like, sheesh, we need to be careful what we wish for, peeps. So yeah, forget me.
Lifestyle
Robin Antin's 'Playground' Dancers Get in Crazy Catfight at L.A. Restaurant
Robin Antin‘s new show is putting the real in reality TV … after 2 members got into a messy catfight over some stupid boy drama.
Check it out … the crew for “Playground” is enjoying a nice dinner out with The Pussycat Dolls creator, when things get tense between Deanna and Alexis. In the footage — a peek at episode 9 of the Hulu series — Deanna learns her coworker hasn’t been all that honest about their mutual friend, Tuil … who Deanna has been getting cozy with.
Hulu
Thanks to one truth bomb from Madison … it comes out Alexis went out on a dinner date with Tuil … though she says she didn’t think Deanna would care since she supposedly had already lost interest in him.
Watch the vid … Deanna’s reaction is crazy heated — she starts throwing insults, and hands!!!
Deanna aggressively approaches Alexis, repeatedly getting in her face and shoving her … threatening to do more as other castmates try to calm her down. Dexter even tries to break up the whole thing himself.
This incident is dramatic enough it catches the attention of the police, who respond to the scene — lights on and everything.
The other dancers soon demand Robin take action against Deanna … with Alexis going as far as to call Deanna a liability in one confessional. In fact, several dancers even contemplate leaving the studio … which is the exact opposite thing Robin wants to see happen.
Remember, the Los Angeles studio is all about building community and helping dancers elevate their craft so they can achieve great things. Don’t forget, 2 of Robin’s dancers even got a chance to audition for Megan Thee Stallion this season.
There’s currently no word if season 2 is happening … but here’s hoping production picks up soon, because we have to know what happens next!
Lifestyle
In 1989, a big gray brick with a tiny monochrome screen became gaming's new smash hit
This is part of a special series where NPR looks back at our coverage of major news stories in the past.
Japanese company Nintendo introduced the Game Boy, its first portable gaming device to take game cartridges, in 1989. Early models boasted a two-inch screen and ran on an 8-bit system. As long as players had four AA batteries to power the Game Boy, they could play anywhere, anytime.
The Game Boy entered the American market on July 31, 1989, and sold 1 million units within a few weeks. Nintendo included Tetris in the U.S. game cartridge bundle and the game became a massive success among players, eventually selling 35 million units of the game with the Game Boy. Other early titles included Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball and Tennis.
In 1990, NPR’s Lars Hoel talked with adults who enthusiastically played Tetris on their Game Boy before (and sometimes during) work. One business executive said, “[…] I just put on Tetris and I get my heartbeat racing, I get my competitive spirit going and then I’m ready to take on the world.”
Nintendo released many iterations of the Game Boy, including the Game Boy Pocket, the Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance, before ending its production of the device in 2005. By that point, Nintendo had sold nearly 120 million units worldwide.
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