US soccer star has a goal for 2020: booting out Trump
From award shows to magazine covers, it can often feel as though Megan Rapinoe is everywhere in the US. Soon that might include rallies for Democratic presidential candidates.
The US women’s national soccer team’s fiery co-captain is not running for office. But after helping the Americans clinch a second consecutive World Cup title, the 34-year-old winger is setting her sights on helping the 2020 presidential field.
From “smart and sharp” Elizabeth Warren, to “radical” Bernie Sanders and “charismatic” Cory Booker, Rapinoe is finding plenty to rally behind in the Democratic field. “I think the most important thing is to get that maniac out of the White House,” Rapinoe told Reuters on Monday at Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year awards, where she received the top prize.
The Ballon d’Or winner caught the ire of US President Donald Trump during her team’s
World Cup run. An expletivepunctuated clip of her saying she would not visit the White House if they won the tournament emerged before the team’s quarterfinal match.
On Monday she reiterated that now famous pledge and said she is ready to hit the road to rally support for his eventual opponent. “Get me on the bus, get me on one of those planes,” Rapinoe said.
“I want to rile people up! … If I’ve got to knock on doors to get people to vote, I’m down.”
She will have little time to spare in 2020: she and her team will head to Olympic qualifying matches early in 2020, before a May trial date for the US squad’s gender discrimination lawsuit against their governing body.
Rapinoe has emerged as a social activist during her career, notably taking a knee during the national anthem in 2016 in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police violence.
During her acceptance speech at the awards, Rapinoe called for greater racial and gender diversity at Sports Illustrated and criticised the relative dearth of female Sportsperson of the Year honorees.
Rapinoe and 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams are the only two female athletes honoured independently with a Sportsperson of the Year prize in the past two decades.
“Sports Illustrated needs to look at itself and think, what kind of story are we telling our subscribers and are we telling the country about sports in America?” she said.