The one-v-ones and stuff, that's a special skill in and of itself. That's the sizzle. Fans love that.
— Megan Rapinoe
I was made exactly the way I was meant to be made in who I am and my personality and the way I was born.
I play a certain style. I'm not willing to compromise that part of me.
You never want to go through a coaching change mid-cycle.
Being a winger or a wide mid, I have to run continuously for 90 minutes, which not only takes endurance but also strength in my legs to be able to be explosive for 90 minutes. I think weight training has really allowed me to sustain for those 90 minutes.
A typical week of training leading up to a major championship is like the sprinkling of parsley at the end of a dish. It's just the final little touches, that last little bit of strength or fitness, but mostly you are ready and are just maintaining and staying healthy.
Be honest about how you approach failure. Don't just be critical of yourself, because that can be self-serving. Approach it honestly, assess your performance, and assess the areas where you have fallen short. Correct them and move on. Don't dwell on it. Don't hold on to it.
I feel like everyone is really craving people to come out. People want - they need - to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol' U.S. of A.
I think it's absolutely absurd that we're playing on turf, and it's really a slap in the face to women's football by FIFA and just a show of disrespect.
I think our existence in professional sports is almost a protest in and of itself in sometimes the very sexist society that we live in. For us, it's just kind of right in line with what we always do.
Some guy in Germany has my face tattooed on the back of his calf. That was wild. It was a decent tattoo job, but that's kind of weird for me.
I'm a pretty open book, so not being out publicly felt inauthentic. Hopefully we can get to a point where your personal life isn't anybody else's business, but until then, it's less about people having to know about your sexuality than standing up for what's right and fighting for equality.
If we want to be proud to be from a country like America and all the things that we hang our hats on, like diversity, equality, land of the free and home of the brave, it's everybody's responsibility to ensure that everyone in the country is being afforded the same rights.
I just think gay men are looked at much less favorably than gay women. If you look at the overall stereotype, lesbians are sexy, and gay men are disgusting. Girl and girl is fine, and guy and guy seems to just be something completely different.
I think people now - you know, a lot of athletes have come out and said, I would definitely accept, you know, a gay male athlete in the locker room and on my team.
Obviously to be on this team, to be able to represent my country and have the platform that I do, I'm incredibly grateful for it.
I think it's very difficult, and people don't give enough credit to how hard it is to do in-game commentary. I'd have a lot of work to do, but I'd definitely be interested. I'm always interested in breaking down the game, and I'd love to see more females doing it.
I've always been a risk taker. Growing up, I had a lot of freedom and room to roam and do what I wanted, and I think that's a huge part of my game.
I would say it's part tomboy, part hipster, definitely part want-to-be-very-comfortable. Fashion is a way for me to express myself. I guess I'm vain in that sense. It's not a bad thing.
I think our team kind of strives on weirdness sometimes. We have that 'rah-rah, rally' sort of American mentality that we can all kind of get around.
For this group, because we have so many big personalities, I think the manager also has to have a big personality but in a way that sort of knows how to deal with everything.
I've had to learn how to listen to my body over the years and figure out how it all works together. I'm not invincible, so focusing on training my whole body and injury prevention have been extremely important.
I think there's a lot of gay women in sports, and it's widely known in the team; they can live a pretty open lifestyle without being open in the media.
Putting yourself out there is hard, but it's so worth it. I don't think anyone who has ever spoken out, or stood up or had a brave moment, has regretted it. It's empowering and confidence-building and inspiring. Not only to other people, but to yourself.
If there's one thing this team doesn't lack, it's competitiveness and a desire to win. No matter if we come off a win or come off a loss, it seems like we don't really care. We're always motivated to win.
For us, the conversation is always about getting paid what we feel like we're worth and getting paid as the sport grows and as we help grow the sport.
Honestly, I feel like we are a walking protest. The fact that we're women professional athletes says that in and of itself. We've been feeling the inequality; we've been struggling with pay equality or whatever it is, or sexism in sports.
Being female and an advocate for equal opportunities, I want to see an equal representation in people applying for the head coach job for the women's team.
You have someone like Colin or many of the other athletes who have knelt, especially athletes of colour, and if you're not respecting what they're saying, if you're not believing their charges of police brutality or racial inequality, you're saying that they're lying.
Everyone who has a pair of eyes in this country understands the racial tensions and the issues we have are very serious and they're not going away. Just because we had Barack Obama as our president and, on paper, everything looks equal, it's very clearly not.
There are plenty of sports teams that say they're very open and super accepting in the locker room. But are they really? Is it really a safe environment? Have they preset that environment to make these players feel comfortable for coming out? I don't think so because there's none out.
I think we need to keep our faces out there and to keep our game out there and keep it growing.
I think that a lot of these cops have been put in very difficult situations and tasked with very difficult jobs with very little training and very little help.
Just emotionally, as amazing as it is to win the World Cup, it's emotionally draining in many ways.
I need to feel like I have that freedom to make mistakes and to just try things.
Some people play best when they're frustrated and mad. I play my best when I'm happy. I really, truly do.
We're a pretty strong bunch, and we have pretty lofty goals. For us, the manager is very important in a lot of ways, but also, we have a job to do, and that's to go out and win.
When we, as a nation, put our minds to something, when we truly choose to care about something, change always happens.
Over the years, I have really figured out what works for me. It's not about what anyone else is doing. I can't worry about whether I am doing everything that another player is doing, which can be hard sometimes. I have to trust my training and know my body and figure out what will get the best out of me.
There are not many athletes who are out. And I think it's something that's important. It felt important to me. I guess it seems like a weight off my shoulders, because I've been playing a lot better than I've ever played before. I think I'm just enjoying myself, and I'm happy.
I do wish, when I was younger, that I knew that I was gay. It would have made things a lot clearer for me. Really. Looking back on it, it was so obvious, but it never really dawned on me. Socially, I felt like I didn't know how to be and who to be. If I had known back then, it would have given me more self-confidence.
Maybe you're not having a thousand times more injuries, but there's an aspect to the purity of the game and the quality of the game that is played on grass that is different on turf.
I feel like it's actually everybody's responsibility to use whatever platform they have to do good in the world, basically, and to try to make our society better, whether you're an accountant or an activist or an athlete or whatever it is. I think it's everybody's responsibility.
It's frustrating sometimes: as an athlete, you're thrust into the spotlight, and you know, I think this team has always done a really amazing job of understanding that we have this incredible platform; let's do something good with it.
Homophobia in male sports is much stronger than in women's sports; the locker room environment is a lot different. It's going to be much more of a brave step, an earthshaking move, for a gay male athlete to come out.
One of the U.S. Soccer Federation's points is that it's an honour and a privilege to to play for this country, and it is. But we also represent the entire country, and the idea of liberty and justice isn't afforded to everyone.
Even before I came out, looking at me, I've probably looked a little gay. I had short hair, and, you know, it wasn't a huge surprise to people. But some athletes have this image to uphold and may feel like sponsors won't want them if they're gay.
Maybe you are homophobic a little bit, but then you see me, and you've always loved me, and you love the way I play, and your kids love me. And then you're like, 'Oh, that's OK. It's fine.' Once it gets a little bit more personal, it helps break down those barriers.
It seems like I'm thinking 400 hours a day; that's kind of how it feels.
It's often hard to just throw money at a problem when you don't really know what the problem is.
