President Joe Biden presents the Medal of Freedom to soccer player Megan Rapinoe, Thursday, July 7, 2022, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
How is it that one of women’s sports’ biggest stars has now become arguably its biggest enemy? The team, some would argue, has humored aging players and granted these figureheads minutes they don’t deserve.
The US Women’s National Soccer Team, in case you haven’t heard, lost to Sweden in penalties last Sunday. Luther Ray Abel reports in NRO that after double overtime, the game went to a shoot-out, where the U.S. had opportunities to end the match.
As was the case throughout regulation, the women couldn’t get the job done when things got close — despite the magisterial effort and shot prediction from U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher. After seven penalty shots, the Norsewomen put the match away with a shot deflection that snuck across the line before Naeher could completely reject the offending orb.
Megan Rapinoe’s story could be an inspiration for any young female athlete, but, unfortunately, she has mired her success in victimhood. As one of the loudest voices in the USWNT fighting for equal pay, she and about two dozen members of the women’s soccer team filed a lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation, according to the Spectator’s Amber Athey.
Megan Rapinoe is one such washed-up player, continues Mr. Abel:
Further, she’s a player with a duffel’s worth of political baggage and a brash progressive delivery that makes her a hate totem for the Right. She’s a parody of the gender-studies professor we imagine infests every college — but now she’s real and taking penalty kicks (chewing the scenery whether she makes it or misses) while refusing to sing the national anthem.
While Rapinoe looks like she has the pelt of one such bear cut in a pixie style, the story here is that Rapinoe is washed up and the greatest gift she could have given her team was announcing her retirement five years ago. Regardless of knowledgeable viewers’ protestations, there she was with the chance to put the match almost out of reach, and she botches the kick — which came minutes after failing to wrangle a deflection in overtime that would have been nigh insurmountable for Sweden. How frustrating.
Instead of Practicing, Suing for Equal Pay
Rapinoe was one of the loudest voices in the USWNT’s “fight for equal pay,” More than two dozen members of the women’s team filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against the US Soccer Federation. The USWNT players claimed gender discrimination, primarily because they earned less World Cup prize money than their male counterparts, even though the USMNT has never advanced past the quarter-finals of the tournament.
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