Legend Megan Rapinoe Is Playing Her Final World Cup. Here’s a Look Back at Her Career

Rapinoe has played as a forward for the USWNT for 17 years, and in that time has officially hit 200 caps (i.e. national team appearances) and made 63 goals, according to US Soccer.

As one of the most experienced veterans on the team, Rapinoe stepped into a leadership role with the 2019 World Cup. In previous tournaments, “I was able to kind of fly under the radar a little bit and not have too much pressure,” she told POPSUGAR at the time. “But being one of the older veteran players, that’s definitely a role that I and a lot of other players have taken on.” She served as a co-captain, along with Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, on the team that won the 2019 World Cup, where she earned both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot.

Though she’s not a captain at the 2023 tournament, Rapinoe still acts as a leader for the team both on and off the field.

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Yep, Rapinoe is one half of a sports power couple. She met basketball star Sue Bird at a sponsor event at the 2016 Olympics, and they started dating that September. Bird, now retired, used to play for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. Between them, the couple have a ton of hardware: Bird has five Olympic gold medals and four WNBA titles under her belt, while Rapinoe has her own Olympic gold and bronze, plus two World Cup titles.

They were also the first gay couple to appear in ESPN Magazine’s Body Issue, and Rapinoe helped Bird see the importance of publicly talking about her sexuality. “Megan and I would have conversations about it, and she opened my eyes to another way of looking at it, which is that in today’s time, in today’s society, it’s still important to kind of say it to make it the norm,” Bird told The Seattle Times in 2018.

The couple got engaged in October 2020, but have yet to set a wedding date. See a full timeline of Rapinoe and Bird’s relationship here.

Beyond her support for equal pay, Rapinoe has been a forceful advocate for racial justice throughout her career. An early supporter of Colin Kaepernick, Rapinoe knelt for the national anthem during a USWNT game in 2016 and faced immediate criticism for it.

“I think it’s actually pretty disgusting the way [Kaepernick] was treated . . . We need to have a more thoughtful, two-sided conversation about racial issues in this country,” she told American Soccer Now at the time. As part of the LGBT community, she continued, “I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it. It’s important to have white people stand in support of people of color on this.”

In 2017, US Soccer banned players from kneeling during the national anthem. Rapinoe was left off the national team roster for over six months after she knelt during the anthem, though coach Jill Ellis said it was performance-related. US Soccer ultimately repealed the rule in 2021.

After leading the USWNT to their fourth World Cup title, Rapinoe was named the Best FIFA Women’s Player of the Year in 2019. Rapinoe used her acceptance speech to call for an end to racism in soccer, especially directed from fans to players, and to give support to other athletes who faced hatred or rejection because of their sexuality, race, or gender.

“I feel like if we really want to have meaningful change, what I think is most inspiring would be if everybody other than [Black players like] Raheem Sterling and [Kalidou] Koulibaly, if they were as outraged about racism as they were,” Rapinoe said. ” If everybody was as outraged about homophobia as the LGBTQ players . . . if everybody was as outraged about equal pay or the lack thereof of the lack of investment in the women’s game other than just women. That would be the most inspiring thing to me.”

Along with her fellow USWNT members, Rapinoe has ben a leader in the fight for equal pay for women. The team and former players issued a gender-discrimination lawsuit against US Soccer in 2019, and after years of work, made history when they reached an agreement with US Soccer that guarantees equal pay through 2028.

Rapinoe and USWNT teammate Margaret Purce both spoke at the White House in March 2021 for Equal Pay Day, and Rapinoe later addressed a House of Representatives committee on the same subject.

“You want stadiums filled? We fill them,” Rapinoe said. “You want role models for your kids, your boys and your girls and your little trans kids, we have that . . . you want us to represent America in the best way possible. We’ve done all of that, and simply there’s no reason why we’re underpaid for the exception of gender.”

In July 2023, the USWNT won the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYs for their work on equal pay, which is having a ripple effect outside the world of sports.

In July 2022, President Joe Biden presented Rapinoe with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, along with 17 other recipients, including gymnast Simone Biles. Rapinoe was the first soccer player to receive the award and one of just six female athletes or coaches, according to NBC News.

When Rapinoe announced her retirement, President Biden commented on her Instagram post sharing the news, writing: “World Cup and Olympic Champion. Medal of Freedom recipient. Tireless advocate of equal pay for women and for the dignity and respect of all. Congrats on an incredible career. Looking forward to seeing how you continue to help people believe in themselves and the possibilities of our nation.”

Rapinoe’s memoir, “One Life”, came out in 2020 to rave reviews, quickly becoming a New York Times bestseller. In the book, Rapinoe tells her life story, from growing up in Redding, CA, to coming out as gay in college, kneeling for the national anthem in 2016, and her continued work as an activist coming to terms with her own privilege.

“Abs are made in the kitchen,” Megan told POPSUGAR – which is where her healthy diet comes into play. “A good plank, though, I love a good plank. I don’t do a lot of sit-ups or – I actually do zero sit-ups or crunches or anything like that. I do plank.” Pick a few favorite plank variations to feel the burn for yourself.