Lesbian U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe has been named the 2019 Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated.
Rapinoe received the accolade for her leadership of the U.S. Women’s National Team during the World Cup, as well as her political activism—she has been a vocal proponent of equal pay and critic of President Donald Trump (saying the team would not go to the “f***ing White House” after winning the World Cup) and even got benched for kneeling during the national anthem to show solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick in 2016.
.@GrantWahl talks with @JennyVrentas about her new Sportsperson of the Year story on Megan Rapinoe.
They talk about Rapinoe’s athletic and social impact and the forces in her life that have shaped those things
Listen now: https://t.co/TCg9UP6nmE pic.twitter.com/nZUlBOjyRB
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) December 9, 2019
Honored to win @SInow #Sportsperson of the Year! I couldn’t have done it without the fans. This award is for all of you. #VWAmbassador #DriveBigger @vw pic.twitter.com/nLAQe0OklP
— Megan Rapinoe (@mPinoe) December 9, 2019
The purple-haired athlete is only the fourth woman to be named Sportsperson of the Year in 66 years. She celebrated the honor on Instagram.
“While we do not get to choose what we see or what happens around us, and sometimes to us and others,” her post reads, “we do get to choose how we bear witness to it.”
This accolade is one of many Rapinoe has racked up this year: she was named FIFA’s Best Women’s Player in the World, received FIFA’s Golden Boot for top goal-scorer, and made the list of Glamour’s Women of the Year.