Alex Morgan

"My confidence makes me strong. Dedicat­ing a lot of my life to my profession and feeling fulfilled makes me strong. Having a family and a husband who chal­lenge me makes me strong."

"I kind of knew coming back after giving birth was gonna be a process and that I was going to have to be patient with myself and my body. [But] I definitely put pressure on myself."

"The fight that we are doing right now for equal pay does not mean that we will achieve it in the short term. We are not going to get the equal pay right away, but it may be done by the time my daughter plays soccer and she will not suffer what we suffered."

"I want to show that I deserve to be at the top. I want to be the best player that I can be, that I can be a valuable member of the team after being a mother."

"You have to figure it out you have to be mom and a professional athlete. There’s a lot of athletes going to Tokyo that are also fellow mom athletes and I’m excited to catch up with them and kind of just represent all the moms, soccer moms united."

"When you have 12 teams in an Olympics in comparison to a World Cup where you have double that amount of teams, I think every single team is going to be difficult."

"Before I got pregnant, my mindset was like, it’s possible that I’ll never reach my potential again."

"I loved sports from a really young age. I told my parents that I wanted to become a professional soccer player when I was like 7 years old. But I think when I realized that I had the potential to be a professional soccer player, or compete for my country in a world tournament, was probably when was... I would say like 17 years old. I had a scholarship to go to college. I was on a national team, and I knew that was what I was going to do. I wanted it more than anyone else. And I was willing to work harder than anyone else to achieve that."

"But also... being a professional athlete is totally different now than two years ago, before being a mom athlete. Priorities change and you have to get up and go to training and do your job, and make the most of it, and know that when you come home there's no time to let your body stretch and just lay on the couch."

"I definitely think that I would be a different person without sports; they taught me so much. Just about myself, patience, teamwork, listening... it's taught me so much that I feel like I've applied to being a mom."

"I would say I'm good at organizing things, like trips or vacations. I'm always the one to book the flights, and do things like that. I like to do my research. I wouldn't say I'm a super type A personality, but I like to be organized when it comes to travel and vacation."

"I feel like for me, I'm tapping into a whole new level that I didn't have before getting pregnant. I was really scared going into pregnancy thinking that I might not get back to playing for my country ever again, or playing as well as I was before. And I think that's something that some female athletes do have a fear of, and so for me, I want to be as open as possible in my journey, in showing women that we are capable of incredible things and that we can be professional athletes and moms. Our bodies are capable of going through incredible things."

"We’re trying to do the same thing and we’ve come a long way. But it gets exhausting having to do this every day, every week. Our male counterparts have not had to fight as much – so sometimes you feel a little exhausted always having to prove yourself and show your worth."

"To force a change sometimes you need to stand up. You know what you’re worth – rather than what your employer is paying you. We’re not scared. To move the women’s game ahead we need to do what’s necessary. I feel other national teams are looking at us for that guidance."

"I understand there’s much more money in the men’s game. But Fifa spent so much time on the men they now need to focus a little more on us. I would like to close that gap even if I’m not expecting it to be equal. I’m not expecting there to be a huge jump and the win bonus to be $35m when, for the women, it’s $2m. I don’t think the entire world respects women in sport. But if Fifa start respecting the women’s game more, others will follow."