US soccer star Megan Rapinoe addresses Draymond Green’s equal pay comments
US President Joe Biden (R) signs a proclamation marking National Equal Pay Day 2021, flanked by US First Lady Jill Biden (L), US soccer players Margaret Purce (C) and Megan Rapinoe (2nd R), during an Equal Pay Day event in the South Court Auditorium of the White House in Washington DC, on March 24, 2021. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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(Reuters) — U.S. women’s national soccer team forward Megan Rapinoe fired back at Warriors forward Draymond Green on Wednesday, saying the basketball player should have been better educated on the issue of gender pay equity when he accused female athletes of only “complaining.”
Rapinoe and her fellow U.S. national teammates became leading figures for pay equity in the United States after getting into a public battle with their federation over wages and playing conditions in the run-up to the team’s successful World Cup bid in 2019.
She lambasted the recent NCAA basketball tournament organizers for offering inferior facilities to the women’s teams and Green for saying female athletes are not leveraging their position to force companies into increasing the revenues of women’s leagues.
“It’s really unfortunate in the position that (Green is) in, having all of the resources that he has and the ability to have a much more educated opinion, that he just hasn’t,” Rapinoe told reporters at the Team USA media summit on Wednesday.
“(And to do it) when the tournament was going on and all that we saw with the lack of investment, with the lack of resources, with the lack of funding – that’s just really frustrating that that’s the take that you have,” she said.
The U.S. women’s soccer team begin their quest for a fifth Olympic gold medal in Tokyo this summer.
© 2021 Thomson Reuters.
