USA TODAY International Edition
Rapinoe’s memoir aims to inspire
Megan Rapinoe is getting personal about her “One Life.”
In her memoir, out now, the Olympic gold medalist and two- time Women’s World Cup champion opens up about her life and soccer career, starting from her younger years growing up in Redding, California, to her sports stardom, which led her to travel around the world.
The book has a perfect balance for soccer fans and Rapinoe admirers alike. Not only does she give her own play- by- plays of notable games and explain the challenges she and her team faced in their fight for equality in women’s sports, but she also doesn’t shy away from stories about her coming- out journey, her relationships, her inspiring activism and more.
Here are some of the ways the book will inspire readers:
To take up space
Rapinoe’s “signature pose” from the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup is synonymous with the feeling we had when finishing this book: heart full, arms wide and ready to take up space in this world.
Rapinoe, through her confidence in everything from last- minute purple hair to fighting for equal pay ( which included appealing a judge’s rejection of Rapinoe’s team’s pay equity claims in May), acts as an example for other women to be unapologetically themselves.
She explains in the book that her attention- grabbing “I deserve this” remark while celebrating her 2019 World Cup win against the Netherlands was her “speaking for women who are told to be selfless, invisible, meek; to accept less money, less respect ... who are told to be grateful, uncomplaining. Who are discouraged from owning their victories or even seeking them out in the first place.”
She continues: “You can share, and help, and be part of your community and also stand tall and enjoy your success. No caveat, no apology. Arms out wide, claim your space.”
To put in the work
One theme that carries through the book is her focus on activism, in women’s equality and on LGBTQ rights and racial issues.
Readers learn about Rapinoe’s early work in taking a stand against racism throughout her career, including her headline- making decision to kneel during the national anthem of a September 2016 game in solidarity with NFL star Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protests against racial injustices. She also highlights that it was members of the WNBA who launched sportsbased racial injustice protests eby wearing T- shirts emblazoned with “BLACK LIVES MATTER.”
“I credit Colin Kaepernick with so much, but the fact is that the first athletes to protest were the women of the WNBA and they have never been given their dues,” she writes.
While providing some history about racism in America, she speaks about ways she educated herself on the topic, including reading “every piece on racial injustice that came out in the
press” as well as works by Ta- Nehisi Coates, including “We Were Eight Years in Power,” an essay collection that confronts the legacy of President Barack Obama, the election of President Donald Trump and what each says about the intractability of race in our country.
She also explains you don’t have to have her level of fame to take part in doing the work to fight for change: “I don’t think you need a big platform to do this. It can be as simple as pushing back against a bigoted remark when you don’t belong to the group being targeted.”
To recognize our privilege
Rapinoe does not mince words about white Americans like herself having a “four- hundred- year baked- in advantage.” Even as a gay woman, she highlights the privilege she has as a white person.
“There were far fewer black Americans in soccer than basketball, and going into my protest, I knew that my whiteness and the whiteness of my sport in general probably offered some degree of immunity,” she writes. “To his detractors, Colin ( Kaepernick) was the embodiment of the racist stereotype of the aggressive black male.”
She also speaks to her privilege of coming out as a female athlete, writing: “I came out and it was applauded; that’s not the universal experience, or probably, even the norm.”
And she speaks to the importance of using privilege to help others.
“I always understood that once you have a tiny bit of power, space, or control, you should do everything you can to share it,” she writes. “Given the breaks I’ve had, speaking out seems like the least I can ( expletive) do.”
To be open about the things that matter most
Another impactful part of the book is her openness with not only her activism but her decisions to speak up about other things, including her sexual orientation and her brother’s drug abuse.
In the book, Rapinoe walks readers through her coming- out process, from her journey of discovering her sexuality to her relationships with players on and off the field – all the way up to her current partner, WNBA star Sue Bird. The two recently got engaged.
Just as her public coming out provided much- needed representation in the sports world, her book continues that push for representation and normalization.
“I hoped that by talking about all this I was doing something to normalize being gay and counter the fact that so many athletes remained in the closet,” she writes, explaining that the more people who come out, the “more we break down the stereotypes of what it is to be gay.”
Another issue she talks openly about in an effort to bring light to a difficult topic is her brother Brian’s challenges with drug abuse and incarceration.
She traces Brian, who is five years her senior, from a young soccer player whom she “idolized” to learning about his first drug possession arrest when she was 10 and how “everything unraveled from there.”
She discusses not only Brian’s ups and downs but also the way it affected her and her family and the larger problems in the justice system.
“This is the nightmare Brian, my kind, funny, lovely brother, got into as a teenager and is still in today. He was not the ‘ bad’ child who went off the rails,” she says. “I don’t absolve my brother entirely of blame, but it was always much bigger and more complicated than that.”
To have a winning mentality
Rapinoe comes across as having a distinct contrast in her personality – not taking herself too seriously except when it comes to things that matter, such as her activism and winning.
She explains that her team is often described by outsiders as being “unbeatable” because of their “winning mentality.”
“We lose, of course. I’ve won plenty and lost plenty,” she says. “The difference is that we truly believe we’re going to win, in every single game, no matter how the game is going or at what stage it’s in.”
In today’s world, it’s an inspiring concept in keeping the faith. And for Rapinoe and her team, it’s vital: “It’s the difference between winning and losing.”