Rachael Elizabeth Rapinoe (born July 5, 1985) is an American former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. She played for Stjarnan Women in Iceland and the

United States women's national under-23 soccer team The United States U-23 women's national soccer team is a youth soccer team operated under the auspices of U.S. Soccer. Its primary role is the development of players in preparation for the full Women's National Team. The team competes in a va ...

Early life

Rapinoe grew up in

Redding, California Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border wi ...

, with her parents, Jim and Denise, and five siblings, including her fraternal twin sister, Megan Rapinoe, who also became a professional soccer player. She has Italian (from her paternal grandfather) and Irish ancestry. She attended Foothill High School, where she played both basketball and track, but did not play soccer initially. She and her sister later played for club soccer team Elk Grove United, ranked number one nationally in 2003 and which finished second at the 2003 U-19 National Championships.

University of Portland

Rapinoe attended the

University of Portland , mottoeng = The truth will set you free , established = 1901 , type = Private university , religious_affiliation = Catholic (Congregation of Holy Cross) , endowment = $218 million , president = Robert D. Kelly , students = 3,731 (fall 20 ...

, majoring in life science. She became the Portland Pilots go-to scorer in 2006 after a midseason switch from defender to forward after her sister Megan experienced an ACL injury. She scored nine goals and seven assists, including five goals in four playoff games. In 2007, she was named

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

Co-Player of the Week. Rapinoe experienced a torn knee ligament injury in 2007, re-torn in 2008, which was said to be a career-ender; she did play after that date, until the ligament tore again in 2012. She later announced that she had retired from soccer and was interested in pursuing a career in medicine. In 2016, she received a Master's degree in Health Studies in Exercise from Portland State.

Playing career

Club

Stjarnan Women

In July 2010, Rapinoe re-emerged on the international soccer scene when it was announced that she had signed with Icelandic professional women's team, Stjarnan Women. She made five appearances for the team and scored two goals.

International

In 2006, Rapinoe played for the

Coaching career

In 2011, Rachael Rapinoe was chosen to represent the United States by the International Center's Sports Corps program in the Indonesia America Soccer Exchange where she helped conduct three one-day training clinics for an estimated 200–300 female athletes and 30 coaches. She has hosted youth soccer camps with her sister Megan Rapinoe.

Personal life

Rapinoe is gay.

References

External links

*
Portland Pilots player profile
*
US Soccer player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapinoe, Rachael 1985 births American women's soccer players Living people Sportspeople from Redding, California Fraternal twins American lesbian sportswomen American LGBT soccer players Portland Pilots women's soccer players Soccer players from California American twins Women's association football midfielders Women's association football forwards Stjarnan women's football players