Abby Wambach, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA World Cup Champion, is coming to SLU on Jan. 28, 2020 in the Wool Ballroom at 7 p.m. as the next speaker for the Great Issues Committee in collaboration with SLU Athletics Department. 

Her accolades include the 2016 ESPYS Icon award, 2011 AP Female Athlete of the Year and 6-time winner of U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year.  

In addition to her extensive career highlights, Wambach is known for her equal rights activism as a speaker on topics related to leadership development for women in the workplace, inspiration, family and health and wellness. At SLU, she’ll discuss her experience as a female and a member of the LGBTQ+ community while being an athlete as well as the unique challenges she faced in finding acceptance and accessing equal opportunities. 

In 2018, Wambach spoke at the Barnard Commencement Ceremony and called the female graduates her “wolfpack.” She said in the speech, “If I could go back and tell myself one thing, it would be this: Abby, you were never little red riding hood, you were always the wolf.” Her words of female empowerment and leadership throughout life’s setbacks resonated with the audience and soon went viral. The speech’s commentary on standing up for equal pay and demands for what women deserve became even more relevant in the wake of the 2019 U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation for “purposeful gender discrimination.” The viral speech inspired her newest book, entitled “Wolfpack: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the Game,” published in April 2019. 

Her first book, “Forward: A Memoir,” traced her childhood beginnings on the boys’ soccer team to becoming the highest all-time international goal scorer for male and female soccer players. Her resilient and courageous journey earned her the title of “badass” from President Obama after winning the 2015 World Cup Championship. 

SLU students look forward to hearing from another powerful women after GIC’s last female speaker, Monica Lewinsky.