The stage was set for Megan Rapinoe’s goodbye game. The gleaming lights, the camera streaks, the drone of expectation — all combined on this day as the U.S. Ladies’ Public Soccer Group took on South Africa in Chicago. A day intended to praise a competitor’s celebrated 17-year profession, yet, as Rapinoe moved toward the sidelines during her last minutes on the pitch, a troublesome combination of commendation and boos reverberated all through the arena.
Megan Rapinoe has forever been something beyond a soccer player. All through her profession, she’s taken positions on issues that rose above the green breadths of the soccer field. A vocal supporter for the LGBTQ people group, racial equity, and ladies’ value in sports, Rapinoe’s activism has prompted her being both venerated and censured. Furthermore, maybe, this duality showed most obviously in the sounds that waved her farewell on her last match.
To the segments of the crowd that ejected in cheers, Megan Rapinoe addressed something other than the game. To them, she embodied fortitude and strength, both as a competitor and a supporter.
They saw her as somebody who took on the foundation, from the U.S. Soccer League to the passages of political power. What’s more, most eminently, they perceived her crucial job in the public group’s battle for equivalent compensation — a battle that finished in a memorable understanding simply a year ago.