Wednesday January 13th 2021
Rapinoe sees "terrible" USA
Trump's mob "showed our true colors"
Megan Rapinoe is back in the US national team after ten months and comes back with stirring words after the storm on the Capitol. The soccer player was "shocked", but not surprised. "This is exactly America," she says of Trump's mob. Now punishments should follow.
Megan Rapinoe wrapped her anger in eloquence. For the first time in almost ten months, the football icon was at a press conference for the US national team, and she had a lot to say. The terrifying storm of the mob incited by Donald Trump on the Capitol got under the skin of the world champion so much that she could hardly talk about her football comeback. Or wanted to.
"It's shocking how awful it was and how insane," said the world champion, who of course played the first digital press round at the training camp in Orlando. The 35-year-old warned that January 6th could only have been the beginning: "Of course, all the calls for unity and advancement cannot do without justice. If we do not punish this and investigate it fully, it only suggests, that more of it happens. "
The energetic Trump opponent Rapinoe, an activist for social justice and against discrimination for years, classified the violent incidents explicitly differently than the future President Joe Biden. "This is America. Make no mistake about it. I think we have shown our true colors," she said of the "frightening" situation in the USA.
"Not a murderous mob for the first time"
Biden had stated: "These chaotic scenes do not represent the real America." Rapinoe contradicted: "It's not the first time we've seen such a murderous mob. Unleashing a mob of white supremacy is nothing new to America, as People of Color know very well." Five people, including a police officer, were killed in the attempted uprising in the US capital.
Despite the political unrest and a violently angry pandemic, the world champions should now simulate normalcy. Two international games against Colombia are scheduled for January 18 and 22 in Florida, the four-time Olympic champion's prelude to the games in Tokyo.
Rapinoe hasn't played a game since last March. For fear of the virus, but also because she needed a break after the hustle and bustle for herself during and after the 2019 World Cup in France. In the meantime she got engaged to national basketball player Sue Bird, published her biography "One Life" and was, of course, politically active.
Rapinoe will now continue to use sport as a vehicle to change the world. It became accordingly clear when a journalist finally asked her about a Trump supporter who was photographed in a fan sweater of the US women's national team on her return from Washington.
"We want to create a place that is inclusive, safe and diverse for our fans and as a backdrop for our players, for the people who watch on TV and for the media who report about it. So" was the captain's clear message , "don't bring this bullshit here".
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