Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are engaged

The US sports stars Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird want to get married.

The couple announced their engagement on Instagram on Friday.

The two-time soccer world champion Rapinoe and Bird, professional in the basketball league WNBA, met at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Bird, who won her fourth title earlier this month with Seattle Storm, is now posting a photo that shows Rapinoe kneeling next to her by a pool and putting a ring on her.

"Ring Season", wrote the basketball team on Twitter and congratulated the "power couple".

In the "Bubble" in Bradenton / Florida, where the WNBA played its season, Rapinoe was always at the side of her 40-year-old partner.

The 35-year-old soccer player won Olympic gold once in 2012 and became world champion in 2015 and 2019.

Megan Rapinoe is also in the headlines outside of football - with her opinion on politics or the balance of power in sport.

Her statement caused a sensation in 2019 that she would under no circumstances accept an invitation to the White House if her team won the World Cup.

"I'm not going to the bloody White House," says Rapinoe in a video clip that Eight by Eight magazine uploaded to Twitter.

In 2012, Rapinoe became the first US female soccer player to publicly acknowledge her homosexuality.

She is considered one of the most important faces of the LGBTQ movement and fought against prejudice.

The offensive player showed solidarity with American footballer Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 to demonstrate against discrimination against blacks in the United States.

Trump had called Kaepernicks a "son of a bitch" for his knees.

Rapinoe also knelt in 2016 until the US Football Association asked its players to "stand respectfully" during the national anthem in early 2017.

Since then, when the US anthem is played before an international match and the other players sing, Rapinoe is silent.

Most recently, she argued with her association in court: Rapinoe wants to ensure that women in football are paid the same as men.

However, a federal court in California dismissed the lawsuit in May.

"I am shocked by the verdict and the explanation," she said afterwards in a TV interview, but she was undeterred: "We will definitely appeal and continue."

Icon: The mirror

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