Megan Rapinoe’s decade to remember in soccer, culture, and media at large

This essay was originally published on Dec. 16, 2019 to nominate Rapinoe for that year’s The Athletic’s Person of the Year award. It is being republished here in light of Rapinoe’s announcement that she will retire from playing soccer at the end of the 2023 NWSL season. 

I’ve seen Megan Rapinoe in all kinds of moods over the last year: focused, frustrated, flip, funny, euphoric. But for all the attention she has attracted, all the highlight-reel moments and stop-the-press speeches, all the interviews and mixed zones I’ve shared with her across a couple of countries, it’s a moment of generosity while discussing a teammate one night in North Carolina that sticks with me as the ultimate distillation of Megan Rapinoe’s character.

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We’re in Charlotte. It’s early October, but it’s hot. The weather reminds me of the heatwave that followed us around France this summer, but at least North Carolina knows its air conditioning. The night is one long celebration of Ali Krieger, who had earned her 100th cap with the national team before the World Cup, and who is finally getting her celebration game. Everyone’s emotional, reminiscing about her fortitude to make it onto the World Cup roster.

And even though Krieger’s hurt and can’t actually play in the friendly against South Korea — her fiancée, Ashlyn Harris, wears the captain’s armband for the game — she’s still all anyone is talking about as they walk through the postgame mixed zone in the tunnel right off the field at Bank of America Stadium.

I’m waiting on Rapinoe, who’s stuck in the locker room getting some minor treatment. It’s getting later and later, and I watch the local news crews give up and drift out into the parking lot. Unlike them, I’m not on deadline.