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Former United States Women’s National Team player Hope Solo told a podcast last week that she saw teammate Megan Rapinoe “almost intimidate” players into kneeling for the National anthem.
“I’ve seen Megan Rapinoe almost bullying players into kneeling because she really wants to defend something in her own way, but it’s our right as Americans to do it the way that we’re comfortable, “Solo said on” All from United States: America’s Women’s Football Show“ last Tuesday.
The former goalkeeper described the kneeling as “very confrontational”.
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Former teammates Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo. (Photo by Wilf Thorne / ISI Photos / Getty Images) (Photo by Steve Bardens-FIFA / FIFA via Getty Images)
“I appreciate the fact that there is no national anthem just before the game. To really take that decision away from the athletes. Because it’s very difficult, it’s difficult,” she said. declared.
Solo, 40, added that there was a lot of pressure on the athletes and many felt they were “carrying the world on their backs”.
“I think it’s really difficult to be on the main stage right now with so many political issues for the athletes,” she said. “There is a lot of pressure, and at the end of the day our number one goal should and always has been to win first.”
Earlier this month, the American women’s football star Carli Lloyd stunned fans when she appeared to be the only American player standing before the team’s game against Australia at the Tokyo Olympics.
The team had received criticism at the start of the Olympics when the players knelt before their game against Sweden, which the United States lost 3-0. Their difficult start ended in a bronze medal after the team beat Australia, 4-3, to finish in third place.
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Rapinoe has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump. This month, the former president, in a statement released by his Save America PAC, accused footballers of being “awake” and not focusing on winning.
“If our football team, led by a radical group of maniacal leftists, had not been awakened, they would have won the gold instead of the bronze,” Trump wrote.
Rapinoe was also the first white athlete to follow Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest against racism and discrimination. She caught the attention of US Soccer, which then forced its athletes to show up for the national anthem.
Last year, Rapinoe praised Kaepernick at the ESPY Awards and said his 2016 protests were leaving a lasting legacy. Time magazine named Rapinoe one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020 because of his impact on and “beyond the pitch.”
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Solo, a World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, played for the United States women’s national soccer team from 2000 to 2016.
Ryan Gaydos of Fox News contributed to this report
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