Soccer star Abby Wambach reflects on recent arrest

Just days after being charged with driving under the influence, two-time Olympic gold medalist and soccer superstar Abby Wambach told a crowd of University of Kentucky students that she was “embarrassed and ashamed.”

She said she knows the arrest affected not just her friends and family but her fans.

But, she said later, “all of the best things that ever happened to me were some of my greatest failures.”

Wambach, 35, was the UK Student Activities Board’s Women of the World speaker Tuesday night in Memorial Hall. The event was moderated by Mel Coffee, an associate professor of journalism.

Wambach urged students to make sure “that those moments that give you direction are moments that you take. Not moments that you ignore. You’ve got to just get up, dust yourself off and move on.”

She was arrested over the weekend in Portland, Ore., and charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants. Her attorney entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf Tuesday.

Court documents associated with the case indicate Wambach told police she used marijuana between the ages of 24 and 25 and she tried cocaine when she was 25.

Wambach posted a statement on Facebook after her arrest Saturday, apologizing and saying that she was taking full responsibility for her actions.

Wambach, who was part of the U.S. team that won the World Cup last year, is soccer’s all-time international goal scorer, with 184.

She announced her retirement from soccer in October and told Coffee she was focusing her efforts now on “a conversation about equality and changing the world.”

She said she’s been asking CEOs of companies to look at the makeup of their executive boards. “I want to make sure that all people, not just women ... that there’s a representative of everyone on those boards and on those executive committees.”

“My goal and my dream is to have some sort of system in place and policy from our government,” similar to what Title IX does for sports, she said. “Why not have that for the working world? Why not hold companies accountable to the people that they employ?”

Asked to offer advice to students, she urged them to “be yourself,” try new things, and show kindness and compassion to those around them.

“So often now in ... our culture we’re so quick to punch somebody when they’re down and not help them get up,” she said. “When you help people, it comes back to you in kind.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 10:16 PM with the headline "Soccer star Abby Wambach reflects on recent arrest."