Megan Rapinoe

Megan Rapinoe was an American soccer player who helped lead the United States Women's National Soccer team to winning a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, as well as back-to-back FIFA Women's World Cup Championships in 2015 and 2019, respectively. Born and raised in Redding, California, Rapinoe and her fraternal twin sister, Rachael, grew up loving sports. Megan played basketball and track as a young girl, but by the time high school rolled around she showed promise as a soccer player. By her junior and senior year Rapinoe was being named as one of the country's top high school soccer players, and all while maintaining her grades and making it on the honor roll each semester. When it came time for college, both Megan and her sister earned full rides to play soccer for the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon. Megan consistently broke records at the school, and all while being sidelined twice for tearing her ACL. In 2008 Rapinoe was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year, and subsequently entered the Women's Professional Soccer Draft. Megan was selected second overall by the Chicago Red Stars during the league's inaugural season of 2009. That same year she was selected to the league's All-Star Team. When Women's Professional Soccer ceased operations in 2012, Rapinoe continued playing professionally for professional clubs in Australia and France. It was on the global playing field, however, where Megan Rapinoe would really make her mark. She first became known globally during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. Rapinoe was playing for the U.S. Women's National Team, and helped lead the team to the finals after scoring a critical late goal against Brazil in the Finals. Although the U.S. would eventually lose to Japan in the Finals, Rapinoe's clutch goal against Brazil earned her the 2011 ESPY Award for Best Play of the Year. When the National Women's Soccer League launched in 2013 Megan joined the Seattle Reign FC. She became the team's captain in 2018. In 2019 the Seattle Reign changed their name to Reign FC and relocated to Tacoma, Washington. Rapinoe retained her role as captain. After losing to Japan in the Women's World Cup in 2011, Rapinoe helped lead the U.S. National Team to victory over Japan at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Rapinoe and the team played before a crowd of over 80,000 spectators at Wembley Stadium, making it the largest crowd for a women's soccer game in history. Rapinoe would go on to help lead the U.S. National Team to back-to-back victories in 2015 and 2019 at the Women's World Cup. For her efforts in the 2019 Women's World Cup, which included 6 goals, Rapinoe earned the Golden Ball Award as the tournament's best player. In addition to soccer, Rapinoe, who came out as a lesbian in July of 2012, was also a strong advocate for a number of LGBTQ organizations, including GLEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. In 2019 Rapinoe made history by becoming the first openly gay woman to appear in the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.