For Megan Rapinoe, the last three months have been, in her own words, “a whirlwind that’s been fun, crazy, and super busy.”
In early July, she and her teammates on the U.S. Women’s National Team took international soccer by storm, bringing home their second straight and fourth overall World Cup title.
That was followed by a ticker-tape parade in New York City, a celebratory five-match victory tour that’s given soccer fans across the country the opportunity to see Rapinoe and the team play in person and last month, there was a pretty special trip to Milan, Italy.
There, Rapinoe – who had already won both the adidas Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards at the World Cup as the tournament’s best player and top goal scorer – was named FIFA’s 2019 Best Women’s Player in the World.
And in that moment, with the world watching, the 34-year-old encouraged her fellow soccer stars to use their voices and their platforms to speak out against racism, sexism, homophobia and inequality, in regard to pay disparity and beyond.
On Thursday, just four days after the national team wrapped up its victory tour with a 1-1 draw against South Korea at Chicago’s Soldier Field, Rapinoe took time from her packed schedule to bring her message to the University of Miami as part of the school’s “What Matters to U” Student Government speaker series at the Donna E. Shalala Student Center.
For her, reaching out to the next generation of leaders and athletes has become a mission of sorts.
“All of us are getting older and dying off and not going to be here. These are the kids that are going to be politicians, in business and in those social spaces. They’re the ones that need to be as engaged as we are right now,” Rapinoe said. “And I think it’s important to give hope and sort of bridge that gap and learn from them.
“It’s so inspiring to see [teenage environmental activist] Greta Thunberg, the kids from Parkland, all these things are affecting them just as much as they’re affecting all of us and they don’t have the ability to vote or do anything about it right now, but they’re affecting it so much. They’re pushing the agenda so much. For me to be able to get in front of them, it’s just fun. You get a different vibe, a lighter vibe. But hopefully, I want to learn from them and have them learn from me. I think that’s really important.”
During a one hour conversation moderated by Shirelle Jackson, Miami’s senior associate athletic director for student-athlete development, and Claudia DeLorenzo, a senior majoring in neuroscience, Rapinoe touched on a variety of topics, including her experience coming out both personally and professionally, the importance of fighting for equal pay, mental health, time management, and why in 2016 she felt compelled to kneel during the national anthem to protest allegations of police brutality and raise awareness of other social issues.
“I don’t regret it at all. I feel like I did the right thing and I don’t think that anything [former NFL quarterback and activist] Colin [Kaepernick] was talking about was wrong,” Rapinoe said. “I think we have all of these problems in our country and until we’re willing to really reconcile with it and face it honestly as a country, it’s not going to get better. People weren’t willing to have a conversation. It became something totally different and just trying to skew the conversation in a different way was really sad.”
Rapinoe continued, “When I was doing it, particularly in the U.S. shirt, I felt very American. Being American, I think, is about standing up for everybody. One particular person or group of people don’t get to co-opt the idea of patriotism or use it for one specific thing. I think America is great. I love living in America. I don’t want to live anywhere else, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be better and that we can’t face the things that have been very wrong in our country and continue to still be very wrong in our country and make them better.”
More than once, students cheered Rapinoe’s message and several – including some members of the Hurricanes’ women’s soccer team, who met with Rapinoe before her presentation – thanked her personally for not only visiting campus, but for her willingness to use her voice to champion causes that matter to her and so many others.
“It’s super cool for her to be here and share her story and what she believes in,” said senior Lexi Castellano, who plays soccer for the Hurricanes. “Being able to follow her career when I was growing up and finally being able to meet her is amazing and an incredible experience.
“She’s an amazing athlete and she’s overcome so many obstacles. What she believes in, in women’s rights and in empowering women, I think that’s awesome and something we lack in the world right now.”
After answering questions from Jackson and DeLorenzo, Rapinoe fielded questions from the students in attendance – and even laughingly turned down a marriage proposal in the process.
She joked that her partner Sue Bird’s sneaker collection has somewhat taken over their home, shared tips on how to score on the perfect penalty kick and handle high-pressure situations and told the audience that she’s determined to keep playing as long as she feels she can perform at a high level.
And before leaving the stage and sending the crowd into a frenzy when she put her hands together in UM’s famed “U” gesture, Rapinoe encouraged students to stand up for what they believe in and find their voices, no matter how tough that might seem at times.
“I think, first and foremost, your voices are important and powerful. Sometimes it feels like, ‘What am I going to do? I’m just one person or one group.’ But if everybody in who thought they were one person or one group did it, it would already be done,” Rapinoe said. “The second thing, which I realized on the team – especially as we’ve gotten into the equal pay fight – if you want it done, do it. No one’s going to do it for you. No one’s going to say it for you. Take that and empower yourself with that. You have all the resources. You’re at an incredible university.
If you want it done, you have the power to do it.
“And third, I think it is your responsibility as a person at this university, as a person in society, to, in whatever way that you can, try to make the world a better place. If everybody in the world really took to heart that it’s their responsibility to make the world a better place, I think people would feel a lot more inspired to act and to do something.”
