Two of the US’ best athletes are getting married after Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird on Saturday announced their engagement.
The couple boast an impressive list of achievements.
Rapinoe has won two FIFA Women’s World Cups and an Olympic gold medal with the US national team, and last year picked up the Ballon d’Or Feminin for the world’s best women’s player.
Photo: Mary Holt-USA TODAY
Bird 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.
The two met at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and began dating shortly afterward.
“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 photograph online of Rapinoe placing a ring on her finger on Friday night.
“Congrats to THE power couple on their engagement!!!” Bird’s team, the Seattle Storm, wrote on Twitter.
As well as their sporting success, the couple are prominent social activists.
They cohosted 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 of racial injustice.
She has also clashed with US President Donald Trump.
“We are everything he loves,” Rapinoe told the Guardian last year, “with the exception that we’re powerful, strong women.”
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