USA forward Abby Wambach plans on playing at 2016 Rio Olympics
U.S. women's national team forward Abby Wambach says she still plans on playing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, she told a local Fox affiliate in her native Rochester, N.Y., on Wednesday.
“I haven't decided on what I'm going to do,” Wambach said, referring to her playing future. “I'm planning on playing next summer in Rio, but I gotta let my body recover, because that’s the thing about artificial surface. Seven games is a lot of games and it wasn’t a long period of time we were playing over. So my body took some hits, and I’m trying to recover.”
Wambach acknowledged on Twitter that she first needs to make the Olympic roster in order to be able to make a decision about her international playing future.
Wambach has won two Olympic gold medals in her career after scoring the game-winning header of the 2004 Olympic final against Brazil and five goals at the 2012 Summer Games in London. Wambach suffered a leg injury in 2008 and missed that year's Olympics.
She is international soccer's all-time leading scorer with her 183 goals in 259 matches.
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Wambach will be 36 at the start of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Christie Rampone was the oldest player of the 2012 Olympic women's soccer team, and that year she became the first U.S. player named to four Olympic teams. She has not closed the door on trying for her fifth Olympic team.
All four forwards from the 2012 Olympic team (Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux, Amy Rodriguez and Wambach) were on the United States team that won the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup earlier this month. Christen Press was in attendance in London as an alternate and also started one game for the USWNT this summer.
Watch Wambach's goal that won the United States the gold medal in the 2004 Olympics below:
[youtube: https://youtu.be/CwDs48eqpxY?t=2h7m31s]
- Christopher Chavez
