Video Editor: Vishal Kumar
Megan Rapinoe, heading the ascendant US Women’s Soccer Team, is an athlete unlike those we’ve seen before – outspoken, but for the downtrodden; brash, but only against the powerful; and woke.
That’s something new – when they make (non-sporting) news, athletes are usually being pulled up for boorish behaviour or violence or objectionable language.
But Megan Rapinoe and her team have been making headlines for the following non-game incidents:
Come At Us, FIFA
Taking on FIFA and demanding equal pay for the women’s team, given that they are four-time world champions and much more successful than the men’s team. Yet, they argue, the men’s team is paid a third more than they are, and have been open about their displeasure. They’ve been so open about it that in their recent victory over the Netherlands, the crowd erupted into spontaneous chants of ‘Equal pay! Equal pay!’
POTUS, You’re Next
Snubbing the most powerful man in the country, US President Donald Trump (repeatedly) by saying they would refuse to go to the White House even if invited. When the video of Rapinoe casually dismissing the possibility of her team going to the White House went viral, Trump unleashed a tweet thread in response, calling on Rapinoe and the team to be more humble until they win.
To his undoubted chagrin, freshman US Senator and Democrat who has been on his tail since she was elected, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, extended an invitation to Rapinoe and her team to visit the House of Representatives instead... and Rapinoe accepted.
Ouch.
Cops, You Too
Rapinoe became the first non-black athlete to join NFL star Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racially motivated police brutality by kneeling during sporting events when the national anthem is played.
Hard Pass on the Homophobia
Rapinoe is also famous for being one of the few out-and-proud national-level athletes. In an industry dominated by the men’s teams and attendant homophobia, a women’s team with more than one openly gay player is an anomaly. And they’re mincing no words about it either. When told it was Pride Month, Rapinoe said to reporters during the World Cup:
“Go gays! You can’t win a championship without gays on your team – it’s never been done before, ever. That’s science, right there!”Megan Rapinoe, Co-Captain, US Women’s National (Soccer) Team
Made for the Limelight
For such a wildly successful team, Rapinoe’s bunch know how to have fun with the spectators, although their winning antics have seen them accused of ‘arrogance’ too.
This smug pose of Rapinoe’s went viral after she scored against France in the quarter-finals, spawning memes upon memes and calls for her to be the next US President. #Rapinoe2020 even briefly trended.
And then there was Alex Morgan, who expressed some artful disdain for the British after her goal against the erstwhile empire.
And that’s the tea.
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