The divine Ms Rapinoe
Outspoken US striker stands between Lionesses and glory
The image of Megan Rapinoe, arms aloft with a serene smile on her face will go down as one of the moments of this World Cup. It is textbook behaviour from the American, lapping up her fans and haters’ undivided attention, delivering when it really mattered.
She had just scored her second goal in the United States’ World Cup quarter-final against France, silencing the noise that had followed her earlier in the week of build-up.
On Tuesday a video interview from earlier this year emerged where she scoffed at the idea of an invite from the president of the United States, saying: “I’m not going to the f------ White House.”
On Wednesday, President Trump responded on Twitter: “I am a big fan of the American Team, and Women’s Soccer, but Megan should WIN first before she TALKS! Finish the job!”
On Friday Rapinoe fired her brace to move one step closer to sealing consecutive World Cups for the USA and “‘finishing the job”’.
The 33-year-old, now competing at her third World Cup, has described herself as a “walking protest”. She refused to sing the national anthem at the 2015 tournament, then a year later she began kneeling during The Star-Spangled Banner ahead of matches, in support of NFL star Colin Kaepernick’s protest for criminal justice reform, most pertinently racial discrimination.
Since the US Soccer Federation altered its rules, she has returned to not singing while standing, and it was how she began the match on Friday, and her pre-match and post-match interactions with the press were equally politically charged, executed with fortitude as well as the charm that Rapinoe wears so well.
She addressed a packed press conference on Thursday afternoon by opening with her own statement on the week’s controversy, saying she stood by her statements on the White House, as well as encouraging her team-mates to stand by her and not be “co-opted by an administration that doesn’t feel the same way and fight for
the same things we fight for”. She then supplanted that swipe at the president with a comment on the American justice system, pointing to her brother Brian, who spent much of his adult life incarcerated for drug offences, as shaping her perspective on reforms that could change lives.
“Really he’s just a drug addict, he probably just needed more rehab rather than being put in maximum security prison,” she said. “That gave me a broader perspective on the criminal justice system and how can we do better.”
Then after their 2-1 win over France she finished off an eventful few days by saying in Pride Month: “Go gays, you can’t win a championship without gays, it’s never been done before, ever. Science right there. To be gay and fabulous during Pride Month at the World Cup is nice.”
And do not forget the equal pay legal dispute Rapinoe and her teammates are spearheading against their own federation, all while excelling at this World Cup.
Her list of protests, fights for justice and support of the equal rights issues might seem exhausting, but, as head coach Jill Ellis puts it, it “feeds” Rapinoe.
It is like she does not even pause to blink before delivering the messages she uses her platform so effectively to make, her defiance unrelenting, her words reverberating around the world. That she is a female footballer drawing a reaction time and again from the most powerful man in the world cannot be underestimated.
Her team-mates are simultaneously in awe of, and unsurprised by Rapinoe’s ability to withstand such a spotlight and score her fourth and fifth goal of the World Cup.
“Megan is an absolute baller, she rises to the occasion every time,” defender Kelley O’Hara said. “Pinoe is the bravest person I know,” midfielder Sam Mewis added.
Veteran defender Ali Krieger took to Twitter amid the Trump storm, saying she would also boycott any invitation.
“Obviously it doesn’t take a lot of mind-space to tweet something like that but I thought it was really important for me to not make [Rapinoe] feel like she has to process this all alone,” Krieger said.
“I don’t want to stay quiet anymore about things that are really important to me, but you can also turn it off and refocus. Women can multitask, imagine that! For her to take the team on her back and finish her chances proves why she’s one of the best players in the world and [is a] representation of what our country is all about: togetherness, fight, having that mentality of winning.”