The youngest (along with her twin sister Rachael) in a family of eight, raised by hard-working middle-class parents in the semi-rural town of Redding, California, Rapinoe and her sister latched on to soccer at an early age. There’s a comforting down-to-earth quality to Rapinoe’s narrative. Written with the aid of author and journalistĮmma Brockes, One Life is attractive not for any literary pretensions but for its simple, honest storytelling. Her new memoir One Life seemed the perfect conduit, and it did not disappoint. I was curious to square my limited familiarity with her politics with a deeper understanding of who she is as a person. Wherever prominent Americans are speaking out for the rights of the marginalized her name inevitably appears. The professional soccer star who co-captained the US National Soccer Team to gold at the FIFA Women’s World Championships in 20 achieved stardom on the soccer field (which I do not follow), but has also forged a progressive reputation in the political field (which I do) for fearless and principled stands on issues like racism and LGBTQ rights. The closest I’ve previously come to reading something sports-related is Haruki Murakami‘s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which of course is primarily about writing, not running.īut Megan Rapinoe‘s memoir was one I simply could not resist. 'This was a huge light bulb moment: realizing that we're not all free until we're all free that it wasn't a question of protesting racial injustice as if it were my own cause, but doing so because this was also my fight.I’ll be honest: the genre of sports memoir is a little, er, out of my league.

'After reading everything I could about social and racial injustice, it became clear to me not only how deep the roots of white supremacy went, but also that it was the system from which all other inequalities came,' she wrote. Not until later that year did Rapinoe rejoin the USWNT, but she never questioned if she was on the right side of history. In March of 2017, US Soccer formally banned national team players from kneeling during the anthem - a policy the governing body has since apologized for and walked back. She was benched for multiple national team games following her initial decision to protest and - a few months later - was cut from the active USWNT roster entirely. Though she has become one of the most prominent athletes in women's soccer history, Rapinoe faced serious repercussions for kneeling during the national anthem. Megan Rapinoe (right) kneels during the national anthem prior to a USWNT game. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

One life megan