WOLFPACK summary

When Wambach retired from professional soccer in 2015, ESPN honored her incredible career with an Icon Award at their glamorous awards show, the ESPYS. Standing on the stage that night, Wambach was filled with gratitude toward the sporting world for allowing her to experience this moment. But as she lay in bed that night, her ears still ringing with applause, the gratitude melted away and was replaced with a darker emotion – anger.

Wambach’s rage stemmed from a moment earlier in the evening when she had shared the ESPYS stage with two more retiring athletes who also received Icon awards, Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning.

As a promising young player on the Youth National team, Wambach was given an exciting peek into her idols’ lives during a tour of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team locker room. As she tried to take in everything around her, one item stood out – a photograph. Someone had put up an image from the 1995 world cup match between the U.S. Women’s Team and their Norwegian counterparts. But something didn’t make sense. Wambach knew that this was a game that her heroes had lost. Why, she wondered, was a photo of their defeat taking pride of place in their locker room?

Five years on, when she joined the national team herself, Wambach finally plucked up the courage to ask about that photograph. The answer she received would change her outlook on failure forever.

The most exhilarating moments of any soccer match come when a goal is scored. During her extraordinary career, Wambach has been responsible for many of these moments herself. In fact, in international games alone, she’s scored 184 goals! But if you get a chance to see her score, take a closer look at what she does in the seconds after the ball hits the back of the net. Look carefully, and you’ll see that as her ecstatic teammates run toward her, Wambach is always pointing at them.

What’s behind this trademark gesture? Recognition. She’s pointing at the other players in recognition that it was they who made her success possible.

When Wambach was just eighteen years old, she had the chance to test her mettle against one of her heroes. The hero in question was Michelle Akers, one of the world’s greatest soccer players. As luck would have it, Akers needed to get some extra training in, and she agreed to play a match against Wambach’s youth team. By the end of the game, Wambach’s view of herself was permanently changed.

Despite the exciting circumstances, the game started in a relaxed fashion, with Akers giving her younger opponents plenty of coaching tips on how to improve their game. However, as the match headed into its final minutes, Akers realized that her own team was three goals down, and in serious danger of losing.

Sometimes it’s easier to be aggressive than vulnerable. In 2008, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team knew all about aggression. They were the world’s best team, and the secret of their success was physical dominance. Under Wambach’s co-captaincy, the team unashamedly won games by intimidating and strong-arming their opponents.

So imagine the team’s horror when their new coach, Pia Sundhage, produced a guitar during their first training session together, and gently sang a Bob Dylan song to them.

After seventeen incredible years of professional soccer, Wambach finally retired. And with retirement came rest. In fact, she gave her body a full three years to recover from decades of physical exertion. When that time was up, she got back into exercise by starting a running program. This should have been easy for a former professional sportswoman, right? Wrong. Every time she ran, Wambach’s whole body ached.

After years of doing far more exercise than this, Wambach wondered, why was she suffering so much now?