Megan Rapinoe thrives on noise. Most athletes strive to be โin the zoneโโthat state of quiet mental focus enabling players to block out the cheers and jeers of stadium crowds, allowing performance to peak. Rapinoe, however, takes in all the chatter. โIโm hearing the crowds, Iโm hearing the fans,โ she says.
Rapinoeโs embrace of commotion has defined her career. Sheโs one of the most talked-about American athletes of our time, a 5-ft. 7-in. whirling dervish of resistance who, depending on whom you ask, is either an unapologetic symbol of on-field excellence and off-field progress or a disrespectful heel. (Or, if misogyny or homophobia is your bag, worse.) More than a decade ago, she came out as gay, giving many other female sports figures permission to be more open about their sexuality. She has since worked tirelessly as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ communityโsheโs the brightest athletic star currently leading a fight against the proliferation of U.S. state laws that ban transgender youth from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity. Rapinoe has also knelt in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and led a protracted but ultimately successful battle against her own soccer federation to ensure equal pay for female players. After Donald Trump criticized her during the 2019 World Cup, she scored against France and struck a now iconic pose that reminded the then President, and her vociferous critics, that sheโs going absolutely nowhere.
Last year, Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the countryโs highest civilian honor. Sheโs the first soccer player so recognized.Rapinoe is entering her fourth and final World Cup, which kicks off July 20 in the dual host nations of Australia and New Zealand and promises to be the best-attended and most-viewed womenโs sporting event in history. She announced on July 8 that she will retire at the end of the 2023 NWSL season. Rapinoe will likely play a more muted on-field role, as a reserve and veteran mentor for younger players on the U.S. team, which is seeking to make history as the first squad, womenโs or menโs, to win three consecutive World Cup titles. Injuries to several prominent U.S. players, however, could call Rapinoe, who turned 38 in early July, into action. A repeat of her brilliant 2019 performance is unlikely, but no longer impossible.
No matter how Rapinoe fares at the tournament, sheโs secured her place as one of the worldโs most influential athletes. Her creative and joyful play helped elevate womenโs soccer to the status of appointment viewing. Female players around the world have followed the example of Rapinoe and her teammates and waged pay fights against their federations. She created a blueprint for female athletes: Tap into your truest self and demand whatโs yours. Lay waste to the notion of being agreeable.
โIn the past, a lot of female athletesโin our generation, for sureโwere told to sit down, to be quiet, to be grateful,โ says former U.S. soccer player Julie Foudy, one of the stars of the 1999 World Cupโwinning national team, whose victory helped bring womenโs sports into the consciousness of many fans. โWhat Rapinoe has brought to the equation is the idea of weโre going to have to boldly disrupt. History has shown that women like her lead people over that line. She hasnโt given a ratโs ass what people think. This is who she is, and what she does. Thereโs freedom to that.โFrom her earliest days, Rapinoe was a tempestuous force. She grew up in Redding, Calif., a remote pocket of red in deep-blue California some 140 miles north of Sacramento. Her father Jim worked as a building contractor; her mother Denise was a waitress at Jackโs Grill, a local steak house, for 36 years; she retired on June 30. โWhen she was convinced she needed something, and my parents wouldnโt give it to her, she would hold her breath until she passed out,โ says her twin sister Rachael. On Meganโs left hand is a tattoo reading โMammersโโa nickname for Denise. Her right-hand ink reads โMa Barkerโโa nickname her grandfather gave her, much to her motherโs chagrin, after the matriarch of a criminal gang, because of her tantrums.
Her parents would shuttle the girls five hours, round trip, to travel to team practices in the Sacramento area. They both received athletic scholarships to the University of Portland and won a national championship. From Meganโs initial tours with the national team, her approach stood out. In one training session, she crossed the ball behind her plant leg, a bit of fancy footwork that earned her a reprimand from one of her veteran teammates. Keep it simple, the vet said. After practice, however, Rapinoe insisted to Abby Wambachโthe all-time leading goal scorer in U.S. historyโthat she made the perfect play. โSheโs not wrong,โ says Wambach. โMegan is always trying to creatively figure out whatโs the best way, the most fun way, to get the job done.โAt the 2011 World Cup, Rapinoeโs cross to Wambach, this time in front of her plant leg, as per tradition, late in a quarter-final game against Brazil kept Americaโs chances alive. (The U.S. ultimately lost to Japan in the final.) At the London Olympics the next year, where the U.S. won gold, Rapinoe scored two goals in an epic 4-3 semifinal victory over Canada, including a goal scored directly off a corner kick, known as an โOlimpicoโ in soccer circles. She was the first to notch an Olimpico at the Olympics.
Rapinoe played a key role in the 2015 U.S. World Cup win in Canada, the countryโs first title since 1999. But her career came to a crossroads a year later when she became the first white professional athlete to kneel during the national anthem. โIt felt like this is what Colin was asking for,โ Rapinoe says. To this day, Rapinoe believes that if white NFL players, especially fellow quarterbacks like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, had knelt to support Kaepernick, heโd still be playing. โEverything looks different, 100%,โ she says.
The blowback was immediate, violent, and visceral, Rachael recalls. Rapinoe received death threats. Jackโs management took down a montage of her photos behind the bar. Patrons sought out Denise to voice their displeasure. โMen can be really abrasive about it,โ says Denise. One guy told her, โWe love you. But I just wish Megan was different.โ Denise replied, โMegan is just perfect the way she is.โ The man grew angry and grabbed Deniseโs arm before his wife and another couple settled him down.
Around this time, Rapinoe started dating WNBA star Sue Bird, now her fiancรฉe. Bird is five years Rapinoeโs senior, and diligent in her nutrition and training habits. These werenโt Rapinoeโs strengths. During her national-team exile, Rapinoe started following Birdโs regimen. โThe silver lining was, she had a big chunk of time to really work on her soccer self and get into peak shape,โ says Bird, who retired at the end of the 2022 WNBA season, at 41, and whose Seattle Storm jersey now hangs in the rafters. โShe came back and balled out.โ
During the 2019 World Cup, the soccer publication Eight by Eight released a video from earlier that year of Rapinoe saying that if the U.S. team won the title, she wouldnโt go โto the f-cking White House.โ Trump retaliated with a tweetstorm questioning Rapinoeโs patriotism and imploring her to โWIN first before she TALKS.โ
Rapinoeโs remarks sparked a fresh wave of hate. Even Birdโs sister received an ominous text message demanding she instruct Bird to โtell her girlfriend to shut the f-ck up.โ In the teamโs next game, a quarter-final clash in Paris against France, Rapinoe opened the scoring on a gorgeous free kick: she jogged to the corner, extended both arms while staring up into the screaming crowd, and flashed aโher wordsโโsh-t-eating grin.โ Trump was on the brain. โIf I could have done this โฆโ she says with a laugh, mimicking the celebration, and extending a middle finger. โCould you just imagine?โTo Rapinoe, who would win the Golden Ball as the tournamentโs best player, the gesture also carried a deeper message. โYou canโt stop progress,โ she says. โNo matter how hard you try. Out of nowhere, this freakinโ purple-haired lesbian is going to come in and be like, F-ck you.โ
Rapinoeโs pet theory is that Trump is secretly a fan. โYou know he was watching that game,โ she says. โYou know he had his McDonaldโs lined up. And he was probably like, โYou know what, I love that.โ I always felt Trump loved me.โ Rapinoe insistsโand a U.S. Soccer official confirmsโthe Trump White House back-channeled an invite, which the team declined. (Spokespeople for the Trump 2024 campaign did not return a request for comment.)
In fact, Rapinoe is convinced she has fewer haters than most people think. โIโm exactly what theyโre familiar and comfortable with, just packaged up differently,โ Rapinoe says. โBut Iโm exactly the brash, arrogant athlete that Americans love.โ
After Rapinoe knelt before a national-team game vs. Thailand, U.S. Soccer put out a statement tsk-tsking her without naming names: โWe have an expectation that our players and coaches will stand and honor our flag while the national anthem is played.โ At the next game, the crowd in Atlanta booed her when she entered as a second-half sub. She was told not to dress for the two games that followed. According to Rapinoe, coach Jill Ellis blamed the benching on her fitness. In early 2017, Rapinoe was left off the roster for the annual SheBelieves Cup held in the U.S. โNo one is going to say this,โ says Rapinoe, โbut I feel like they were happy to just let me go out to pasture.โ (U.S. Soccer declined to comment.)The two-time defending World Cup champion forward for the U.S. is reclining on a restaurant couch in Seattle, where she plays for the OL Reign of the National Womenโs Soccer League (NWSL), wearing rhinestone-studded jeans and a tricolored shirtโwhite, red, and blackโwith a flower pattern running down the sleeves. โEvery time I go over for a corner kick,โ says Rapinoe, โIโm always like, โHey, whatโs going on here?โโ
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