Athlete

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

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.

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.

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 don't know if I found soccer or if soccer found me. Especially because when I was younger, I was doing it, in a lot of ways, because I wanted the attention of my mom and dad.

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'll be honest. After I got married, I definitely had a shift in emotional devotion.

My go-to karaoke? 'Alone' by Celine Dion.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Winning, you can overlook so many things.

I'm pretty goofy. I laugh at my own jokes.

I think I take on a little more responsibility when push comes to shove. I'm not scared to fail.

I would trade all the individual awards I've won for a World Cup.

You can't cry when things get a little bit hard. You've just got to push through and know that there's a reason and end to the means.

I want to do what I can to give the next generation of athletes added advantages in the game.

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.