Megan Rapinoe - On and Off the Field

On October 6, 2023, a record-setting 34,130 fans attended the OL Reign vs Washington Spirit game, the largest crowd in NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) history. Why? This was Megan Rapinoe’s last regular season game before she retired from professional soccer. 

Rapinoe is an iconic soccer player who had a lot of achievements on and off the field. With her help, the United States Women's National Team won 2 World Cup titles, in 2015 and 2019. They also won 2 Olympic gold medals, in 2012 and 2020. During the 2019 World Cup, not only did she win the Golden Boot for having the most goals, but also the Golden Ball, awarded to the tournament’s best player! 

Rapinoe was a key figure in USWNT’s midfield and attack. She also had many club successes, both in the US and in Europe. She played for many clubs including Chicago Red Stars, Philadelphia Independence, MagicJack, and Olympique Lyon, but her heart is with OL Reign, the club where she spent the last 10 years of her career, making Seattle her second home. Rapinoe has received several individual awards and honors for her outstanding performance, including being named to the FIFA FIFPro World XI and winning the French award for best player, the Ballon d’Or Féminin in 2019, proving that she was the best women's player on the planet at the time.

Rapinoe’s legacy with USWNT is bigger than her achievements on the field. Rapinoe led her team’s long fight for equal pay with the U.S. men’s national team. The USWNT, co-captained by Rapinoe, has been a symbol of gender equality ever since they filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against the US Soccer Federation for pay discrimination. The USWNT is more successful than their male counterparts, having won 4 World Cups, but were paid significantly less than their male counterparts. The men’s team has never won a World Cup. The issue was finally resolved in 2022 when both teams started to be paid equally and agreed to split tournament prize money.

Beyond soccer, Rapinoe is an activist, and she has used her popularity to promote LGBTQ+ rights, social justice, and racial equality. Rapinoe decided to come out publicly in 2012 while heading into the London Olympics. She said that coming out as gay made her “a better player and a better, more full person,” setting an example to be yourself and not to be afraid to show it. In 2016, she was the first white athlete to kneel during the playing of the national anthem, in solidarity with a movement to protest racism and police brutality against African Americans. After the USWNT won the 2019 World Cup, Rapinoe declined an invitation to the White House as a sign of protest. Rapinoe was included in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020. In July 2022, Rapinoe received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden for her contribution to LGBTQ+ equality in women’s sports.

Rapinoe’s soccer career might be over, but her fight for justice off the field will continue. “Putting yourself out there is hard, but it’s so worth it.”  -Megan Rapinoe