Couple Goals

Superstar sweethearts MEGAN R APINOE and SUE BIRD are moving the ball forward for future generations of female athletes

- Sarah Cristobal

As anyone who watched the Women’s World Cup this past summer knows, soccer star Megan Rapinoe is unflappable. When the president of the United States fired antagonistic tweets her way, questioning her patriotism and essentially daring her to win the tournament, she (along with the other 22 players on the U.S. national women’s soccer team) did just that. (She even took home the Golden Boot as the top scorer and the Golden Ball as the MVP.) When she was called on to convert high-stakes penalty-kick opportunities into goals before a sold-out stadium of screaming superfans, Rapinoe scored while hardly breaking a sweat. When asked to speak following the team’s celebratory ticker-tape parade in New York City, she stepped up to the podium like a purple-haired guru to deliver a memorable speech that transcended sports clichés and urged the chanting crowd to become kinder people.

“This is my charge to everyone. We have to be better. We have to love more. Hate less. We’ve got to listen more and talk less. We’ve got to know that this is everybody’s responsibility. Every single person here. Every single person who’s not here. Every single person who doesn’t want to be here. Every single person who agrees and doesn’t agree. It’s our responsibility to make this world a better place.”

Two weeks later in Seattle, Rapinoe, decked out in her own Acne top, Issey Miyake shorts, and Burberry sunglasses admits that the speech was unrehearsed. “People were like, ‘Did you plan that?’ Um, no. I would say about 90 percent of it was off-the-cuff. The Champagne was flowing [at the parade]. I had no idea how long I was up there.”