Athlete Megan Rapinoe publishes memoir
You don’t need to be a soccer fan to be aware of Megan Rapinoe. The Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women’s World Cup champion has made headlines for her political and social views. Readers might recall that Rapinoe’s name stirred up a bit of controversy with President Donald Trump in 2019 when she said she wouldn’t visit the White House ahead of her team’s Women’s World Cup championship victory. Rapinoe has used her platform as an openly gay athlete to promote discussions about social justice and has garnered headlines of her own for kneeling in solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick.
She also has used her voice to call for gender equality by joining her team in calling on the U.S. Soccer Federation to change the wage discrimination between the women’s and men’s teams.
Now Rapinoe is sharing not only her voice, but her story in a Penguin Press memoir written with Emma Brockes, “One Life.”
According to the New York Times, Rapinoe, 35, resides in Greenwich with her partner, Sue Bird, 40, the former UConn basketball star who plays for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. The sports power couple recently became engaged.
While Rapinoe was unavailable for an interview, in her book she tells the story of growing up in a conservative town in Northern California as the youngest of six children and how she fell in love with soccer at the age of 4.
According to the book jacket, the soccer star “reflects on the choices she has made, her victories and her failures, and embarks on a thoughtful and candid discussion of her personal journey into social justice. After the 2011 World Cup, discouraged by how few athletes were willing to discuss their sexuality, Rapinoe decided to come out publicly as gay and use her platform to advocate for marriage equality.
“Recognizing the power she had to bring attention to critical issues, in 2016 she took a knee during the national anthem in solidarity with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick to protest racial injustice and police brutality — the first high-profile white athlete to do so. The backlash was immediate, but it couldn’t compare to the overwhelming support. Rapinoe became a force of change, both on and off the field.
“Using anecdotes from her own life and career as an Olympic gold medalist and two-time women’s World Cup champion, from suing the US Soccer Federation over gender discrimination to her widely publicized refusal to visit the White House, Rapinoe discusses the obligation we all have to speak up, and the impact each of us can have on our communities,” the book jacket reads. “Deeply personal and inspiring, ‘One Life’ reveals that real, concrete change lies within all of us, and asks: If we all have the same resource — this one precious life, made up of the decisions we make every day — what are you going to do?”
For more information about Rapinoe’s book, visit penguinrandomhouse.com.