Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 59: Alex Morgan, Co-Captain U.S. Women's National Soccer Team

Transcript

Episode 59: Alex Morgan, Co-Captain U.S. Women's National Soccer Team · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: What's going on? Guys?
0:01
Speaker 2: You are listening to episode fifty nine of Hurdle, a
0:05
Speaker 2: podcast that talks to everyone from entrepreneurs to top CEOs
0:09
Speaker 2: and athletes about how they got through tough times hurdles
0:12
Speaker 2: of sorts by leaning into wellness. My name's Emil Abadi,
0:17
Speaker 2: and this week I am chatting with the one, the
0:21
Speaker 2: only Alex Morgan woman who needs no introduction. I am
0:26
Speaker 2: so excited to have the co captain of the US
0:29
Speaker 2: women's national team on the podcast the week that the
0:32
Speaker 2: Woman's World Cup kicks off in Paris. So many vibes
0:37
Speaker 2: before we get into it, quick shout out to my sponsor, Athletic.
0:40
Speaker 1: Greens with twelve servings of fruits and vegetables.
0:43
Speaker 2: Athletic Greens has got everything I need to kick off
0:46
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0:49
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0:53
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1:01
Speaker 2: That's Athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle to get yours today.
1:06
Speaker 2: All right, now, let's talk about Alex. I was able
1:08
Speaker 2: to catch up with Alex thanks to my friends at Secret.
1:12
Speaker 2: The US women's national team actually partnered with Secret deodor
1:16
Speaker 2: and heading into the Women's World Cup this year for
1:18
Speaker 2: their all Strength, No Sweat campaign, which pretty much is
1:21
Speaker 2: about barrier breaking women like all of these soccer superstars
1:25
Speaker 2: and boldly pursuing their passions without quote unquote sweating the
1:29
Speaker 2: obstacles in their path.
1:31
Speaker 1: I love it.
1:31
Speaker 2: I actually traveled myself to Florida not too long ago
1:35
Speaker 2: to have a conversation with a few of the ladies
1:38
Speaker 2: from the US women's national team and Secret, So I'm
1:41
Speaker 2: all for this partnership and I am so so excited
1:45
Speaker 2: to watch the ladies kick some butt over in Paris
1:49
Speaker 2: this month. Anyway, Alex Morgan grew up in California. She
1:53
Speaker 2: is the co captain of the US women's national team.
1:57
Speaker 2: She's also an Olympic gold medalist, a FIFA Women's World
2:01
Speaker 2: Cup champ.
2:02
Speaker 1: The list of accolades go on. You might have seen
2:04
Speaker 1: her recently on the.
2:05
Speaker 2: Cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, looking absolute fire. On
2:11
Speaker 2: today's episode, we talk about everything from how she's overcome
2:15
Speaker 2: some of the most difficult injuries in her career to
2:18
Speaker 2: what it's like to be a real role model for
2:21
Speaker 2: a lot of young women, and not just young women,
2:24
Speaker 2: really men as well, across the country and all over
2:28
Speaker 2: the world. You know, Alex has a huge platform, she's
2:30
Speaker 2: got a great head on her shoulders, and I can
2:32
Speaker 2: only imagine that she deals with a lot of pressure
2:35
Speaker 2: not just to perform her best on the field, but
2:38
Speaker 2: also just show up and be a strong woman. So
2:41
Speaker 2: this isn't your typical Hurdle episode. Like I said, it's
2:43
Speaker 2: kind of a quick hitter, but it's a conversation that
2:46
Speaker 2: I want to share with all of you, and I
2:47
Speaker 2: hope that she gets something pretty special out of it.
2:50
Speaker 2: As always, you know the Drill at Hurdle podcast on
2:54
Speaker 2: Instagram and Twitter. You can also hit me up It's
2:56
Speaker 2: at Emily a body. If you have a hurdle moment
2:59
Speaker 2: of your own, dishit or want to just say hi,
3:01
Speaker 2: hit me with an email. It's Emily at Hurdle dot
3:04
Speaker 2: us and do me a huge favor this week. What
3:07
Speaker 2: I would love for you to do is, if you
3:08
Speaker 2: haven't done so yet, I plead you please in your
3:12
Speaker 2: podcast app click rate and review the podcast. I want
3:15
Speaker 2: to see that number go from three hundred reviews this
3:18
Speaker 2: week up to something like four hundred. And with that
3:21
Speaker 2: kind of goal, I'm gonna need your help. So head
3:23
Speaker 2: on into the store, rate and review the podcast. Let
3:25
Speaker 2: me know what you like, let me know what kind
3:27
Speaker 2: of guests you're looking forward to, and I'm looking forward
3:31
Speaker 2: to continuing to bring you some more content through the summer.
3:35
Speaker 1: Trust me, I've got some fire on deck. And that's it.
3:39
Speaker 1: With that, let's get to hurdling today. I'm sitting down
3:47
Speaker 1: over the phone with Alex Morgan.
3:49
Speaker 2: She's a soccer superstar, a striker, and I couldn't be
3:54
Speaker 2: more excited to have you on the podcast today.
3:56
Speaker 3: Alex, Yeah, same, Thank you for having me for sure.
3:59
Speaker 1: So where are you right now? Where in the world
4:01
Speaker 1: are you?
4:01
Speaker 3: Oh? Well, I'm at a hot in a hotel room
4:04
Speaker 3: in downtown Los Angeles, and actually we have played last
4:09
Speaker 3: night at the Bank of California Stadium against Belgium, which
4:12
Speaker 3: we won, and I'm headed back home to Orlando tomorrow,
4:17
Speaker 3: so quick turnaround.
4:18
Speaker 2: Well, first things first, I did see you one six
4:21
Speaker 2: to oh last night, right, Yes, we did. Stellar. I
4:24
Speaker 2: think congratulations are in order on your hundredth goal.
4:27
Speaker 1: How did that feel?
4:28
Speaker 3: Thank you. I think it was more of just like
4:31
Speaker 3: nice weight lift off of my back, because a lot
4:35
Speaker 3: of people were talking about it much more than I
4:38
Speaker 3: like to talk about any number of goals or caps
4:41
Speaker 3: or anything in that way, So, you know, I think
4:44
Speaker 3: it was more of a celebration for my family and fans.
4:48
Speaker 2: There's probably a lot of pressure that goes hand in
4:50
Speaker 2: hand with being out there all the time, But I
4:52
Speaker 2: think what's so fantastic about being, you know, on the
4:55
Speaker 2: US women's national team is just this opportunity you have
4:59
Speaker 2: to be such a prose role model for so many
5:02
Speaker 2: young women across the country and across the world on
5:05
Speaker 2: his life.
5:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's pretty cool because growing up, I
5:09
Speaker 3: was able to witness the ninety nine World Cup in
5:12
Speaker 3: the way that those women captivated a nation, and it
5:16
Speaker 3: really grew my passion to want to play soccer and
5:20
Speaker 3: make a making a living doing so, and very grateful
5:24
Speaker 3: for the opportunity to be able to do so. Today,
5:27
Speaker 3: just have more opportunity to inspire that next generation. Women's
5:31
Speaker 3: soccer is continuing to grow so much more, you know,
5:34
Speaker 3: than ever before, So it's pretty incredible to be able
5:37
Speaker 3: to see the growth and evolution of women's soccer in
5:40
Speaker 3: the US for sure.
5:41
Speaker 2: I mean, we know a lot about that Alex Morgan
5:44
Speaker 2: that makes headlines. You know, there are so many accomplishments
5:46
Speaker 2: that I could list off from even a young age.
5:49
Speaker 2: Drafted first overall in twenty eleven, Olympic gold medalist thanks
5:53
Speaker 2: to that huge victory over Japan in twenty twelve, also
5:56
Speaker 2: scored twenty goals and collected twenty assists, joining me a
5:59
Speaker 2: ham in the exclusive club of top performers. I mean,
6:02
Speaker 2: they go on forever. But what I want to know
6:04
Speaker 2: more about is Alex pre twenty eleven. So give me
6:07
Speaker 2: some background about where you grew up and really how
6:11
Speaker 2: you got started with soccer in the first place.
6:14
Speaker 3: So, yeah, I grew up in Diamond Bar, which is
6:17
Speaker 3: a city about forty five minutes outside of Los Angeles.
6:20
Speaker 3: I have two older sisters and I'm the youngest of three.
6:25
Speaker 3: My parents were actually looking for a boy in the
6:27
Speaker 3: third and they got me a third girl. So my
6:32
Speaker 3: dad made sure to make a good athlete out of me,
6:35
Speaker 3: as he was a big baseball guy and wanted to
6:37
Speaker 3: instill that in his son, which became his daughter. But
6:40
Speaker 3: I grew up playing all sorts of sports balled, then softball,
6:44
Speaker 3: you know, and soccer basketball. I ran track in cross country,
6:48
Speaker 3: which I don't know why I did that because I
6:50
Speaker 3: actually hate running, but I did. I played volleyball, you know,
6:54
Speaker 3: So I did it all and then kind of narrowed
6:56
Speaker 3: my focus to soccer and more around thirteen or four,
7:00
Speaker 3: ten years old. But I always wanted to do what
7:02
Speaker 3: my sisters were doing, you know that they were in
7:04
Speaker 3: soccer and soft while I wanted to be in soccer
7:05
Speaker 3: and soft Well, they you know, were went snowboarding and
7:09
Speaker 3: did this and got a bicycle or got got rollerblades.
7:13
Speaker 3: Like I needed to be a part of that. I
7:14
Speaker 3: needed to do what they were doing. So I was
7:16
Speaker 3: always trying to fall in their footsteps. They're four and
7:18
Speaker 3: six years older than me, but I felt like, you know,
7:22
Speaker 3: I wanted to. I wanted to be doing everything they
7:24
Speaker 3: were doing, regardless of that age gap.
7:26
Speaker 2: I know you went to UC Berkeley, So did you
7:29
Speaker 2: know enrolling in the whole college process, that you wanted
7:31
Speaker 2: to go to college and play soccer?
7:34
Speaker 3: Yeah?
7:34
Speaker 1: You know.
7:34
Speaker 3: I grew up seeing my mom handle full time job
7:38
Speaker 3: and getting her getting her MBA, going to grad school
7:43
Speaker 3: and then raising three girls, and I saw really the
7:47
Speaker 3: challenges that came along with that, you know, and my
7:50
Speaker 3: older sister having to sometimes you know, make a dinner,
7:53
Speaker 3: my mom not coming home until you know, not even
7:55
Speaker 3: seeing her when we went to bed, and only seeing
7:57
Speaker 3: her when we woke up. And she did all of
7:59
Speaker 3: that in order to, you know, make sure that we
8:02
Speaker 3: had whatever whatever we wanted and needed. And I just
8:07
Speaker 3: respect her so much for that, And so she felt
8:10
Speaker 3: like that was very important for me to get a
8:13
Speaker 3: college education at one of the best, one of the
8:16
Speaker 3: best universities that you could go. So I was recruited
8:19
Speaker 3: by quite a few universities, but I felt like u C.
8:22
Speaker 3: Berkeley was the perfect fit for me. It was very
8:25
Speaker 3: different than Southern California in the city and in you know,
8:29
Speaker 3: moving to northern California. It's one of the best public
8:33
Speaker 3: universities in the country. I grew up in the public
8:38
Speaker 3: system from when I was in kindergarten, so that you
8:42
Speaker 3: know that to me, you know, was me and my
8:46
Speaker 3: sisters all grew up in a different way. Me all public,
8:50
Speaker 3: my middle sister was half public, half private, and then
8:52
Speaker 3: my older sister was all private. So it was kind
8:54
Speaker 3: of interesting to see the differences with that but I
8:56
Speaker 3: was absolutely loved UC Berkeley. I was so happy playing there,
9:00
Speaker 3: being a full time athlete and student, and I feel
9:02
Speaker 3: like I got so much, so much out of it,
9:06
Speaker 3: and it really helped, you know, set me up for today.
9:08
Speaker 3: And who knows if I'll end up using my degree,
9:11
Speaker 3: but I'm you know, I'm very happy to be able
9:13
Speaker 3: to have graduated in three and a half years and
9:16
Speaker 3: be able to then fulfill my dream as of plain soccer.
9:19
Speaker 1: What was your degree in?
9:20
Speaker 3: It was in political economy, which is not a very
9:23
Speaker 3: common degree.
9:25
Speaker 2: When you go to college for a degree of political economy.
9:28
Speaker 2: What do you end up doing if you don't play
9:31
Speaker 2: professional soccer?
9:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, good question. I don't know what I wanted to do.
9:35
Speaker 3: But our assistant coach at the time had also graduated
9:39
Speaker 3: with a political economy degree. I felt like the classes
9:42
Speaker 3: that were that were offered with in that degree were
9:46
Speaker 3: ones that I was interested in. It was four semesters
9:48
Speaker 3: of a foreign language. It was government policy and you know,
9:52
Speaker 3: dating back to you know, post sixteen hundreds and focusing
9:55
Speaker 3: more on South America and African countries in Part twoicular
10:01
Speaker 3: on those government policies and really how that how that
10:03
Speaker 3: has expected their economy and seeing kind of the gap
10:07
Speaker 3: between the classes. It was. It was pretty fascinating too
10:11
Speaker 3: to learn and be a part of those classes, and
10:14
Speaker 3: I just felt like that was the right degree for me.
10:16
Speaker 3: And I don't necessarily know what you know, it would
10:19
Speaker 3: be applied for per se, but but I you know,
10:23
Speaker 3: I absolutely loved, you know, loved being a part of
10:27
Speaker 3: that major, and I think that I've definitely been able
10:30
Speaker 3: to apply a lot that I've learned, you know, here
10:32
Speaker 3: today because for me, it's important to continue to grow
10:34
Speaker 3: the game and after I play, after I'm finished playing,
10:37
Speaker 3: I want to help countries, you know, around the world
10:40
Speaker 3: that don't respect maybe have that same respect as we
10:44
Speaker 3: do in the US. For women in sports, I want
10:46
Speaker 3: to try to gain opportunity, to give more opportunity for
10:49
Speaker 3: girls and women in soccer specifically, and I think that
10:52
Speaker 3: it starts at the youth developmental level and trying to
10:56
Speaker 3: put developmental academies or youth programs where girls have access
11:00
Speaker 3: to play sports, because I feel like I've learned so
11:02
Speaker 3: much from sports that you can't really teach in education,
11:07
Speaker 3: and I think that it's important that all girls have
11:09
Speaker 3: an opportunity to play.
11:10
Speaker 1: Sports totally totally.
11:11
Speaker 2: I can totally relate with you also about your mom
11:14
Speaker 2: working all the time. I grew up and my mom
11:16
Speaker 2: was a nurse that worked from three pm to twelve am,
11:20
Speaker 2: and so for me, it would be like I would
11:22
Speaker 2: go to school and I'd come home and I would
11:26
Speaker 2: go to an after school program and then be with
11:28
Speaker 2: my father for the evening and go to bed. And
11:30
Speaker 2: so it's tough, right because it's like, you know, they're
11:33
Speaker 2: doing all that they can to do the things that
11:35
Speaker 2: are in your best interest, but it's hard growing up
11:37
Speaker 2: without them around all the time.
11:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that I feel in a way that
11:41
Speaker 3: like my mom did it all, because there's not you
11:44
Speaker 3: know a lot of times I remember where she wasn't
11:46
Speaker 3: like present. You know, she was always there for the
11:49
Speaker 3: important things. She was at every single one of my games.
11:51
Speaker 3: You know, having three daughters, she was making sure to
11:55
Speaker 3: coordinate everything where she was always present for her daughters
11:58
Speaker 3: and both my parents you know, put us first and
12:02
Speaker 3: and it you know, it was incredible to have to
12:04
Speaker 3: supportive parents within you know, my school, within soccer, in sports,
12:11
Speaker 3: but you know it wasn't without so much, you know,
12:15
Speaker 3: tons of sacrifice on their end. I mean they were
12:17
Speaker 3: putting all of their vacation days from work to like
12:21
Speaker 3: for us to live out our dreams.
12:24
Speaker 2: I know in your professional career you've certainly had a
12:26
Speaker 2: few stepbacks along the way. I mean a springed ankle
12:29
Speaker 2: in October twenty fourteen and the knee injury.
12:31
Speaker 1: I had a twenty fifteen year old cup.
12:33
Speaker 2: So I just would love to hear a little bit
12:35
Speaker 2: about how you kind of have handled those setbacks as
12:39
Speaker 2: you've progressed in your career.
12:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. Well yeah, I all started with well
12:43
Speaker 3: not all started, but like my first major injury was
12:46
Speaker 3: when I tore my ACL senior a high school and
12:50
Speaker 3: had to sit out my last you know year of
12:53
Speaker 3: high school soccer, and then going into my first year
12:57
Speaker 3: i UC Berkeley. I tried really hard to make it
13:01
Speaker 3: back in five months, which is you know, really unheard
13:04
Speaker 3: of and sometimes not safe. But I wanted to make
13:07
Speaker 3: sure that I was back on the field ready for
13:08
Speaker 3: that first day of preseason, which I was five and
13:11
Speaker 3: a half six months later. It was important for me
13:13
Speaker 3: not to write her, to make sure I was there
13:15
Speaker 3: and available for selection and and doing everything that all
13:19
Speaker 3: my other teammates were doing. I wanted to be a
13:22
Speaker 3: part of that experience and so that you know, it
13:26
Speaker 3: was like a lot of hard work and like commitment
13:29
Speaker 3: in the sort of like physical therapy office and doing
13:35
Speaker 3: as much as I can without the soccer ball at
13:38
Speaker 3: my foot, which is difficult at times. But I feel
13:41
Speaker 3: like throughout my career, I've had these injuries that have
13:43
Speaker 3: really taught me so much and really helped build my
13:46
Speaker 3: character and help It really helped me appreciate, you know,
13:49
Speaker 3: when I am on the field and healthy and the
13:51
Speaker 3: opportunities that I am given. I feel like I am
13:55
Speaker 3: like stronger mentally for that, and I think it's really
13:58
Speaker 3: helped me today, even though you know it was difficult
14:01
Speaker 3: six months and then five months of my ankle and
14:03
Speaker 3: then a lingering ten months with my knee. You know,
14:06
Speaker 3: these are difficult moments when you're not able to do
14:10
Speaker 3: your job or you know, really feel completely fulfilled and
14:13
Speaker 3: happy within your job. But I feel like it really
14:18
Speaker 3: helped me, you know, be a better like person and
14:20
Speaker 3: teammate and player. For that.
14:28
Speaker 2: Quick break from today's episode, to give my sponsor Athletic
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Speaker 2: I can only imagine, I mean, having been on the
15:44
Speaker 2: injured list myself at times how frustrating it is when
15:47
Speaker 2: there's only so many factors that you can control in
15:50
Speaker 2: the rehabilitation process.
15:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to do your part and you have
15:54
Speaker 3: to be committed, but at the same time there's a
15:57
Speaker 3: lot of patience that is needed as well.
16:00
Speaker 2: My I guess my biggest question as a follow up
16:03
Speaker 2: is like, what's the mental dialogue like for you at
16:05
Speaker 2: times when so many of these things can be out
16:08
Speaker 2: of your control.
16:09
Speaker 3: Well, I think that, like, I lean on my family
16:12
Speaker 3: a lot. I'm very close with my family. Last night
16:15
Speaker 3: when we played in LA I had one hundred tickets
16:18
Speaker 3: that I needed to find for my friends and family,
16:22
Speaker 3: And I have that support system that runs so deep,
16:26
Speaker 3: and they're the ones that really help like guide me
16:29
Speaker 3: through you know, the those so called like dark times
16:32
Speaker 3: of injuries or whatever you might call it. And my
16:36
Speaker 3: husband also, who plays soccer professionally as well, kind of
16:40
Speaker 3: understands that different side of sport, so he's helped me
16:45
Speaker 3: tremendously through that. Also. I think it's like it's important
16:49
Speaker 3: to take a look back and just see how grateful
16:51
Speaker 3: you know, I should be, regardless of the of the
16:53
Speaker 3: circumstances that my health otherwise with other than injury is good.
16:58
Speaker 3: I have a family that supports me unconditionally. I have
17:02
Speaker 3: like a putther of teammates who support me, And it's
17:06
Speaker 3: really difficult to feel bad for yourself in the moment
17:10
Speaker 3: when you think about all that.
17:11
Speaker 2: Right, And I mean, aside from that, you've got five
17:15
Speaker 2: point six million people following you on Instagram?
17:18
Speaker 1: Do you feel ever at times like it's just a lot?
17:23
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think about it that much, or
17:26
Speaker 3: try not to at least, but I think that when
17:29
Speaker 3: I put something out publicly, I know that it's you
17:32
Speaker 3: can never take it back. So I guess there's a
17:34
Speaker 3: little blossing over making sure that I'm like proof reading
17:39
Speaker 3: everything that I'm putting out there before it's before it's
17:42
Speaker 3: officially sent. And social media is a blessing and a curse.
17:47
Speaker 1: In the same totally.
17:49
Speaker 2: All right, So tell me a little bit about what
17:51
Speaker 2: life is like these days gearing up for the World Cup.
17:54
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously you're quite busy, to say the least.
17:58
Speaker 3: So obviously it's like a lot of fine tuning. It's
18:01
Speaker 3: making sure that we're doing everything possible to make sure
18:04
Speaker 3: that we're ready to go in France. So for me,
18:07
Speaker 3: it's involving self care, which is like meditation, a lot
18:11
Speaker 3: of family time, you know, yoga or whatever that might be,
18:15
Speaker 3: just like decompressing and getting my mind off of soccer
18:20
Speaker 3: at times. It's also nutrition, which is I'm primarily primarily
18:26
Speaker 3: plant based, So for me, it's making sure that I'm
18:29
Speaker 3: getting the right amount of carbohydrates and protein and fluid
18:33
Speaker 3: intake that you know is important for my body, especially
18:37
Speaker 3: when playing in hot weather locations. And then on the
18:41
Speaker 3: soccer field, it's making sure that I'm playing my role
18:45
Speaker 3: in doing my part to help the team in any
18:47
Speaker 3: way succeed as great as possible and in help my team,
18:51
Speaker 3: you know, showcase the best that we possibly can in France.
18:55
Speaker 2: You mentioned going plant based. That was a change that
18:58
Speaker 2: you made within the last few years or so, Is
19:01
Speaker 2: that right.
19:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I made that change about a year and a
19:04
Speaker 3: half ago. I'm knocking on wood right now, but I
19:08
Speaker 3: haven't had a serious injury since then, and yeah, I
19:13
Speaker 3: definitely credit that to my diet. I think it's just
19:18
Speaker 3: I feel just better all around. I feel like I
19:21
Speaker 3: have great energy, I feel like I sleep I'm sleeping
19:23
Speaker 3: really well. I feel like I'm just more clear minded,
19:27
Speaker 3: and I'm not as reliant on caffeine as as before. However,
19:32
Speaker 3: I still love coffee in general.
19:34
Speaker 2: Totally, and I mean eating a plant based diet. I
19:36
Speaker 2: think the most popular question that people ask is where
19:39
Speaker 2: are you getting a majority of your protein from?
19:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for like a normal person, a non
19:46
Speaker 3: athlete or non professional athlete, I think it's actually quite easy.
19:50
Speaker 3: But for me, I do find difficulty in making sure
19:53
Speaker 3: that I get enough protein. What my nutrition is back
19:56
Speaker 3: in Orlando says is she wants me to get around
19:59
Speaker 3: ninety grams protein at least, and as on a plant
20:02
Speaker 3: based diet, it's not It's not that easy. I find
20:05
Speaker 3: that a lot of other athletes make it seem easy,
20:08
Speaker 3: but for me, I think it's pretty difficult. So for
20:12
Speaker 3: I it's very common for me to have two protein
20:14
Speaker 3: shakes in a day, almond milk and tea protein. And
20:19
Speaker 3: then I like to incorporate protein into every meal if
20:24
Speaker 3: I possibly can. So that includes like nuts, that includes
20:27
Speaker 3: nut butters of black beans and chick peas. I eat
20:31
Speaker 3: a lot of rice as well. I took like a
20:36
Speaker 3: blood test to see the inflammation within my blood, and
20:38
Speaker 3: I was pretty intolerant to gluten. So I tried just
20:44
Speaker 3: around gain days at least to eat gluten free just
20:49
Speaker 3: so I don't feel bloated. So that adds a whole
20:51
Speaker 3: another layer to my diet that I have to just
20:54
Speaker 3: be more aware of. But at the same time, I
20:56
Speaker 3: feel like my body is like a sanctuary. And and
20:59
Speaker 3: because this like change in diet, I've just seen like
21:02
Speaker 3: so many differences, and even though subtle differences that I've noticed.
21:07
Speaker 3: I go and get like a blood test every couple
21:09
Speaker 3: of months to make sure that my levels are good,
21:11
Speaker 3: and you know, whether that's like viamin B, vitamin D,
21:14
Speaker 3: like iron and everything. I've noticed that, like my cholesterol
21:18
Speaker 3: has just like gone down, so my bad plesurel has
21:21
Speaker 3: gone down so much.
21:22
Speaker 1: So I know that the diet is working totally totally.
21:25
Speaker 2: And I mean, aside from the diet, what are some
21:27
Speaker 2: other things that you're implementing to make sure that you're
21:29
Speaker 2: taking care of your body when you're you know, so
21:32
Speaker 2: banging on it all the time.
21:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I love like doing ice bass and
21:38
Speaker 3: even though they're freezing, full recovery is definitely important. I
21:42
Speaker 3: actually recently learned that, you know, the deeper you can
21:46
Speaker 3: get in the pool the better because of the pressure,
21:49
Speaker 3: and that could really help like clear out your legs
21:53
Speaker 3: of like that like lactic acid or fatigue and your legs.
21:57
Speaker 3: So I'm definitely a big I really love, you know,
22:01
Speaker 3: going in the pool. I like to view these sort
22:04
Speaker 3: of like big legs. I call them like puffy pants
22:06
Speaker 3: because you put them on and you like hook them
22:08
Speaker 3: up and they like just kind of help like flush
22:11
Speaker 3: out your legs and feels pretty good at the same time.
22:15
Speaker 3: And I also I love massage. I think that it's
22:18
Speaker 3: important for everyone to be able to, you know, get
22:23
Speaker 3: a massage and not relaxing one at that, but one
22:25
Speaker 3: that you're definitely able to get into the muscles and
22:28
Speaker 3: really really make sure they're ready to go for that
22:32
Speaker 3: next training. So I feel like there's a lot of
22:34
Speaker 3: different recovery techniques that are available to us. Luckily, within
22:38
Speaker 3: the national team.
22:38
Speaker 2: You're constantly surrounded by a ton of different inspiring women.
22:43
Speaker 2: If you had to reflect so far on your career
22:45
Speaker 2: as a professional athlete, what would you say has been
22:47
Speaker 2: some of the best advice that you've been offered?
22:50
Speaker 3: You know, I think I think one of the biggest
22:52
Speaker 3: things like in sports is like following your gut and
22:56
Speaker 3: so you know, I try to base a lot of
23:00
Speaker 3: my decisions on instinct and feeling. I also think that
23:04
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of my teammates, Uh, something that
23:07
Speaker 3: Abby was so great at was putting the team ahead
23:10
Speaker 3: of herself and just being so selfless in in every
23:15
Speaker 3: moment and being such a great leader. So for me,
23:18
Speaker 3: it's trying to embody, embody what she left within this
23:22
Speaker 3: within this team and the culture that she passed on
23:26
Speaker 3: that was passed on to her and she passed on
23:29
Speaker 3: through me and my teammates still playing within the national
23:32
Speaker 3: team today, of just like rallying the team and making
23:36
Speaker 3: sure that you know your role within within whatever like job, game,
23:42
Speaker 3: whatever you need to do. It's making sure that you're
23:45
Speaker 3: putting your your selfish needs to decide for the greater
23:48
Speaker 3: of the team.
23:50
Speaker 2: If you had to tell me something that's been a
23:53
Speaker 2: super successful and I'll say this in quotes failure that
23:56
Speaker 2: you've gone through and your time as a professional athlete,
23:59
Speaker 2: something that taught you everything but was super difficult at
24:02
Speaker 2: the time, what would you tell me?
24:04
Speaker 3: I mean, I just think like losing, like losing in
24:07
Speaker 3: general is is some of the biggest failures that I
24:12
Speaker 3: learned so much from I mean, there's definitely injuries that
24:15
Speaker 3: go along with that. But when I think of like
24:18
Speaker 3: things that are like heartbreaking is when you know, when
24:22
Speaker 3: we lost in the twenty eleven World Cup, that was
24:25
Speaker 3: like my heart was like broken. I was like so
24:28
Speaker 3: sad and just like couldn't think straight for like a
24:33
Speaker 3: month or two. I felt like paralyzed, like emotionally. That
24:38
Speaker 3: was like a difficult moment for me because we had
24:41
Speaker 3: all just put so much like effort and sacrifice and
24:46
Speaker 3: commitment and everything like into this tournament, and also like
24:52
Speaker 3: felt deserving of coming away with a win, felt deserving
24:57
Speaker 3: that we were like by far the best team in
24:59
Speaker 3: the world. We're going to come away with the World Cup,
25:02
Speaker 3: and we didn't, you know, and it was just like
25:04
Speaker 3: it was really difficult, I feel like for us, But
25:07
Speaker 3: I also like appreciate the win so much more because
25:11
Speaker 3: of that, you know. I think it's as an athlete,
25:13
Speaker 3: it's like do you love winning more or do you
25:18
Speaker 3: hate losing more? You know, I feel like I'm always
25:21
Speaker 3: like I think that I hate losing more than I
25:25
Speaker 3: love winning, And in that, I feel like I'm able
25:28
Speaker 3: to appreciate the wins more because of my pure hate
25:32
Speaker 3: and like heartbreak from the losses.
25:34
Speaker 2: Totally, totally, Well, we're winding down here. Every time on
25:38
Speaker 2: the podcast, I kind of close it out the same way,
25:41
Speaker 2: And I want to offer you the opportunity to give
25:43
Speaker 2: yourself a piece of advice, maybe looking back on that
25:46
Speaker 2: nasty sprained ankle or that knee injury ahead of the
25:49
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen World Cup. You have the opportunity right now
25:52
Speaker 2: to offer yourself one piece of advice, looking back on
25:55
Speaker 2: those hurdle moments right now, what do you tell yourself?
25:59
Speaker 3: I know that this own cliche, but I would say
26:01
Speaker 3: trust in the process and like enjoy, you know, regardless
26:05
Speaker 3: of like what you're faced with, find like the silver lining,
26:09
Speaker 3: find the positive throughout the situation. You know, be grateful
26:13
Speaker 3: for what you're given, yet demand what you deserve.
26:17
Speaker 1: I love that.
26:18
Speaker 2: I've just got to ask what's next for alex aside
26:21
Speaker 2: from the World Cup?
26:24
Speaker 3: You know, I I want to continue playing, you know,
26:26
Speaker 3: as long as my body will allow me, and I
26:29
Speaker 3: hope to continue to do so. And uh and so
26:33
Speaker 3: for right now, it's so hard to look past the
26:35
Speaker 3: World Cup. I really won't allow myself to. So it's
26:38
Speaker 3: really just coming home with that World Cup and with
26:40
Speaker 3: that title and celebrating with family and friends.
26:43
Speaker 2: Please take a moment to leave a quick review by
26:46
Speaker 2: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
26:48
Speaker 2: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
26:51
Speaker 2: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
26:53
Speaker 2: dot you ask connect with the podcast on Instagram and
26:56
Speaker 2: Twitter at Hurdle Podcast. Alex, tell me where do they
26:59
Speaker 2: find you? How they keep up with the US Women's
27:01
Speaker 2: national team. Give me the details.
27:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you could definitely follow me on Instagram or Twitter.
27:07
Speaker 3: Ox Morgan thirteen also with the national team. We do
27:11
Speaker 3: play you know on TV with the Xbox at ESPN,
27:14
Speaker 3: but going on usoccer dot com they definitely have all
27:16
Speaker 3: the details. And something really cool that we just launched
27:20
Speaker 3: is our own players Association logo and brands that you
27:24
Speaker 3: can find all that information on Twitter at USWNT players
27:29
Speaker 3: for sure.
27:29
Speaker 2: While I'm looking forward to following along with you guys
27:32
Speaker 2: on your journey, Thank you so much again for your time.
27:35
Speaker 2: You guys can follow along with me at Emily Body
27:38
Speaker 2: at Hurdle Podcast.
27:39
Speaker 1: Another Hurdle Conquered. Catch you guys next time.