196
SHORT GAME
“To have a complete and informed conversation around
equal pay,” says Rapinoe, “you have to talk about gender
inequity and racial inequity.” Alexander Wang sweater
($695) and shorts ($195); alexanderwang.com.
Fashion Editor: Jorden Bickham.
#Goals
Following their
World Cup win,
Megan Rapinoe and
Alex Morgan are
continuing their
fight for pay
equality—more than
proving they’ve
earned their stripes.
Photographed by
Jackie Nickerson.
BOUNCING OFF THE STANDS of
the Stade de Lyon was the chant
that shook the cultural conscious-
ness: “Equal pay! Equal pay!” The
pay disparity between male and
female sports figures has been rec-
ognized for some time, but the
women’s World Cup brought it to
new prominence. In recent years, a
male soccer player on the U.S.
national team could earn up to
$13,166 per victory in a nontour-
nament game, while a similarly situated female player would
make only $4,950. The pot of prize money awarded to
victorious male World Cup players last year was $400 mil-
lion; this year, the female champions split $30 million.
Months before cocaptains Megan Rapinoe and Alex
Morgan led the U.S. Women’s Soccer team to their fourth
World Cup championship, they and 26 of their teammates
filed a lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation
for these disparities. After returning home from France,
they were at once basking in a jubilant celebration—a
ticker-tape parade down the canyons of New York, strangers
on the street putting babies in their arms—and steeling
themselves for an upcoming mediation with the USSF.
With the fight ahead very much on their minds, the two
team leaders met on a steamy, rainy day in lower Manhattan
to try on a different kind of uniform—and discuss the future
of the game that they so clearly love. “The win was much
bigger than a world championship,” says Morgan, whose
soft-spoken tone belies an inner determination. The Los
Angeles native is headed back to Florida, where she plays
for the Orlando Pride, just days after we speak, and then
will fly on to L.A. to see her husband, Servando Carrasco,
a member of the L.A. Galaxy. “I haven’t been in one place
for more than two days,” she says, laughing. But despite her
hectic schedule, she is hyperfocused on the path ahead. “We
are standing up for what we believe in,” she says, “and we’re
standing up for other women in sports who aren’t getting
opportunities or respect around the world.” (WNBA salaries,
for example, max out at around $116,000, while NBA players
are paid at least $500,000.) Rapinoe knows personally how
the issue plays out in other leagues: Her girlfriend of three
years, Sue Bird, plays for the WNBA.
“To have a complete and in-
formed conversation around equal
pay, you have to talk about gender
inequity and racial inequity,” says
Rapinoe. She sees this fight as not
just about money but about fun-
damental human rights. “It sounds
corny, but are you going to treat
people with respect or aren’t you?”
Rapinoe—one of the first female
athletes to kneel for the National
Anthem in solidarity with NFL
player Colin Kaepernick back in 2016—has long been a
critic of President Trump, despite hailing from what she
describes as “total Trump country” (the small northern
California town of Redding). During a pre-championship
interview, the Seattle Reign forward famously declared that
“I’m not going to the fucking White House” were her team
to win. (Her twin sister, Rachel, has tried to limit the
F-bombs: “Rachel was like, Mom has concerns,” Rapinoe
reports. “No more F-words in public.”) But she’s eager to
make this an issue that builds bridges rather than divides.
“I am totally down for bipartisanship,” she says. “The next
step is really pushing the conversation forward.”
As important as a legal or legislative triumph would be,
Rapinoe underlines that there are many ways to fight this
fight. She’s writing a book (to be published by Penguin
Press in 2020), while also working on another title aimed
at young adults. She’s looking ahead to the 2020 elections,
and expresses admiration for both “rock-star baller” Alex-
andria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi, with her seasoned
wisdom. A day trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, is about
the only break she’ll take before getting back to her regular,
multifaceted work. “Everybody has a personal responsibility
to do something,” says Rapinoe. “I am in front of the press
basically every day. That’s my lane, and I feel comfortable
in it. But there are a million other lanes.”—brooke bobb
