America's superteam: Megan Rapinoe and WNBA star Sue Bird announce engagement
Two of America’s best athletes are getting married after Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird announced their engagement.
The couple boast an impressive list of achievements. Rapinoe has won two World Cups and an Olympic gold medal with the US national team, and picked up the Ballon d’Or Féminin for the world’s best women’s player in 2019. Bird, meanwhile, is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. This month, the 40-year-old won her fourth WNBA title to go alongside her four Olympic gold medals with Team USA. She has also carved out a successful career in Russia, winning five EuroLeague titles with Spartak Moscow and UMMC Ekaterinburg.
Related: Megan Rapinoe: 'We're everything Trump loves – except that we're powerful women'
The two met at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and began dating shortly afterwards. “We have a lot in common and just sort of clicked,” Rapinoe told ESPN in 2017. “I joke she is my No 1 go-to-for-advice person. She’s just so levelheaded.”
Bird posted a photo of Rapinoe placing a ring on her finger on Friday night. “Congrats to THE power couple on their engagement!!!” tweeted Bird’s team, Seattle Storm.
As well as their sporting success, the couple are prominent social activists. They co-hosted the ESPY awards earlier this year with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts. They have also campaigned for LGBTQ and women’s rights, while Rapinoe was one of the first white athletes to kneel during the US national anthem in protest at racial injustice. She has also clashed with Donald Trump. “We are everything he loves,” Rapinoe told the Guardian in 2019, “with the exception that we’re powerful, strong women.
