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Megan Rapinoe:- An Icon or a Disgrace ?

Sunil Sharma
6 min readJul 23, 2019

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Few sporting athletes are as polarising as Megan Rapinoe. She led USA women’s football team in winning the World Cup as one of the co-captains whilst being the top scorer and player of the tournament. Unsurprisingly she receives huge devotion. However, strikingly she receives vast amounts of criticism directed towards her.

This has been her summer. The 33 year old scored six goals as the US women’s football team (soccer for our American friends) went on to retain the World Cup. She has been on television shows, magazines, billboards and “Rapinoe” USA football jerseys are being sold in their thousands to be both girls and boys.

New York Post

Yet almost immediately after USA’s World Cup victory, posters of Rapinoe were vandalised with homophobic slurs and some people going as far as questioning her patriotism. Not everyone is a fan of Rapinoe with conservative critics voicing their anger towards her. Many stating that her feud with Trump and her comments off the pitch have tainted the USA’s World Cup win. Howard Kurtz (Fox News journalist) accused her of using the stage “to mar or spoil or tar what could have been this great unifying victory.” Another Fox News reporter Jesse Watter called her “unpatriotic.” Brad Polumbo argued how she was an awful role model for young girls.”They look up to her and see not a disciplined, respectful sports icon, but a groundlessly…

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Sunil Sharma
Sunil Sharma

Written by Sunil Sharma

Host of "Rational Voices with Sunil"

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