Abby Wambach plans to play in Rio Olympics

Abby Wambach was asked how her life has changed since winning the Women’s World Cup.

Until then, the question for women’s soccer is how to capitalize on and sustain the interest generated by the World Cup – the final for which drew the largest audience in the history of American television for a soccer game.

“My phone’s blowing up (with people texting me) that I’m playing in Rio (in next year’s Olympics) and I’m like, ‘Wow, when did I say that?’ ” Wambach, 35, said Wednesday afternoon from the New York City area.

The Summer Olympics in Rio will take place August 5-21. I gotta let my body recover, because that’s the thing about artificial surface.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about Rio next year in terms of deciding on whether or not I’m going to go for it”, said Wambach, 35.

Wambach, who received a framed copy of the Daily News World Cup special section before the game, said whatever decision she makes, she won’t have any regrets.

Wambach tried to diffuse the story/tweet later in the day by tweeting that she hasn’t made a firm decision on her future and doesn’t know when she will. Whatever I decide, I will be happy. “How do we turn this World Cup championship into something that is real and can last, right?”

“All the games would have looked different [if played on grass]”, Wambach told The Huffington Post in an interview this week.

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.

It’s mighty hard to believe that Wambach won’t be asked to come back and defend the gold medal for the USWNT, so we very well could see her on that pitch in Brazil at a few point next summer.

Other younger and experienced U.S. forwards that could challenge Wambach for the spot include Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux, Christen Press and Amy Rodriguez.