Talk about a power couple! Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe , both Olympic gold medalists, started dating in 2017. The pair first met while backstage at a photo shoot for the 2016 Rio Olympics. “She was in her basketball uniform and she had her hair down,” Rapinoe told NBC in 2021.
“We kinda crossed [paths] and she was like, ‘Oh, hey! Ready for your game?'” Bird added. “I was like, haha..
. funny.” The soccer star revealed that she kicked herself at the time for making “such a bad impression.
” “So dorky,” Bird teased. “I walked away like, ‘I thought you were supposed to be cool?’ We joke about it now cause she was a total dork.” Rapinoe came out as gay publicly in 2012.
In 2020, she told The Sunday Magazine that coming out made her “a better, more full person.” The Olympian added, “I think that any time you hide even the smallest part of yourself, you’re not able to fully capture your potential just in life in general. So I feel like that was part of me .
.. maturing and allowing myself to reach my full potential in all aspects of my life.
” Bird waited to come out to the public until she and Rapinoe began dating in 2017. “I’m gay. Megan’s my girlfriend .
.. these aren’t secrets to people who know me,” she told ESPNW at the time.
“I don’t feel like I’ve not lived my life. I think people have this assumption that if you’re not talking about it, you must be hiding it, like it’s this secret. That was never the case for me.
” The Seattle Storm player had already been out to her friends and family for years. You have successfully subscribed. Subscribe to newsletters By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly Check our latest news in Google News Check our latest news in Apple News The athletes got engaged in October 2020 after three years of dating.
In a May 2022 interview with The Seattle Times , the basketball star revealed why she and Rapinoe still haven’t tied the knot. “It’s funny. It’s more Megan.
We’re on Megan’s schedule,” she said. “My schedule is open in the offseason. I got time.
WNBA is only in the summer. I got time. We’re basically waiting to see what Megan’s soccer future holds and then we’ll go on that.
The soccer schedule is a nightmare. They literally play all year. If I had to guess a year, I think the World Cup is 2023 for them.
It’ll probably be after that. It’s purely based on schedule. It’s not even what we want.
If it was up to us, we would have done it a year ago.” Scroll through for a timeline of their relationship: Credit: Elaine Thompson/AP/Shutterstock Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe's Relationship Timeline: From an Awkward 1st Meeting to a Romantic Engagement Talk about a power couple! Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe , both Olympic gold medalists, started dating in 2017.The pair first met while backstage at a photo shoot for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“She was in her basketball uniform and she had her hair down," Rapinoe told NBC in 2021."We kinda crossed [paths] and she was like, 'Oh, hey! Ready for your game?'" Bird added. "I was like, haha.
.. funny.
"The soccer star revealed that she kicked herself at the time for making “such a bad impression.”"So dorky,” Bird teased. “I walked away like, 'I thought you were supposed to be cool?' We joke about it now cause she was a total dork.
”[sendtonews type="float" key="YyvcNA14CB-2839329-14453"] Rapinoe came out as gay publicly in 2012. In 2020, she told The Sunday Magazine that coming out made her “a better, more full person.” The Olympian added, "I think that any time you hide even the smallest part of yourself, you're not able to fully capture your potential just in life in general.
So I feel like that was part of me ...
maturing and allowing myself to reach my full potential in all aspects of my life."Bird waited to come out to the public until she and Rapinoe began dating in 2017. "I'm gay.
Megan's my girlfriend ...
these aren't secrets to people who know me," she told ESPNW at the time. "I don't feel like I've not lived my life. I think people have this assumption that if you're not talking about it, you must be hiding it, like it's this secret.
That was never the case for me." The Seattle Storm player had already been out to her friends and family for years.The athletes got engaged in October 2020 after three years of dating.
In a May 2022 interview with The Seattle Times , the basketball star revealed why she and Rapinoe still haven’t tied the knot.“It’s funny. It’s more Megan.
We’re on Megan’s schedule,” she said. "My schedule is open in the offseason. I got time.
WNBA is only in the summer. I got time. We’re basically waiting to see what Megan’s soccer future holds and then we’ll go on that.
The soccer schedule is a nightmare. They literally play all year. If I had to guess a year, I think the World Cup is 2023 for them.
It’ll probably be after that. It’s purely based on schedule. It’s not even what we want.
If it was up to us, we would have done it a year ago.”Scroll through for a timeline of their relationship: Credit: Richard Ellis/UPI/Shutterstock 2016 The two athletes met for the first time while backstage at a photoshoot for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Bird told NBC that Rapinoe was a “total dork” the first time they met.
Credit: KCS Presse / MEGA 2017 Bird announced that she is gay and in a relationship with Rapinoe in an interview with ESPNW. “I’m gay. Megan’s my girlfriend .
.. these aren’t secrets to people who know me,” the Olympic gold medalist told the outlet.
Credit: David Silpa/UPI/Shutterstock 2018 The couple posed in the nude together for ESPN’s Body Issue. “I mean, the Body Issue is just cool,” Rapinoe said at the time. “I’ve done it once before.
But even just looking through the magazine every year, it's a celebration of athletes in the way that we look, the muscles, the scars." Credit: Elaine Thompson/AP/Shutterstock 2019 In a video recorded before the World Cup, Rapinoe stated that she would not visit the White House if the United States were to win the championship. Then-president Donald Trump tweeted at the time, “Megan should WIN first before she TALKS.
" He added, “Megan should never disrespect our Country, the White House or our flag.” In a blog post via The Players’ Tribune , Bird addressed her girlfriend’s feud with the commander-in-chief. “Megan, man .
.. I’ll tell you what.
You just cannot shake that girl. She’s going to do her thing, at her own damn speed, to her own damn rhythm, and she’s going to apologize to exactly NO ONE for it. So when all the Trump business started to go down last week, I mean — the fact that Megan just seemed completely unfazed? It’s strange to say, but that was probably the only normal thing about it.
It’s not an act with her,” she wrote. Credit: Richard Ellis/UPI/Shutterstock 2020 The couple announced their engagement via Instagram with a captionless photo of Rapinoe down on one knee. Credit: BPI/Shutterstock 2021 Rapinoe congratulated her fiancé for winning her 5th Olympic Gold Medal in Tokyo.
“I am so proud of you @sbird10 ❤️. As if I could love you any more 🥰. Congrats baby!” Rapinoe captioned an Instagram photo of her and Bird sharing an intimate moment courtside.
Credit: The World of Sports SC/Shutterstock 2022 Bird told E! That she hopes she and Rapinoe can be an inspiration to LGBTQ+ youth. "I think it's so important that when Megan and I are walking down the street, there could be a little gay kid that says, ‘Oh! They're not the weird ones. They're just happy and they're living their lives,' and I feel like that's just so important,” she said.
“For me in middle school, high school, even in college, the gay one was the weird one and I just feel really passionately that we're able to change that." Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock 2023 Rapinoe announced in July 2023 that she would retire after the current season. "It is with a deep sense of peace and gratitude that I have decided this will be my final season playing this beautiful game," she captioned a childhood photo via Instagram.
"I never could have imagined the ways in which soccer would shape and change my life forever, but by the look on this little girl’s face, I think she knew all along ✨." Bird shared a supportive comment: "Congrats, baby!! That little girl is going to continue to do so much good in this world (but she sure did kill it on the field 🤩). I love you ❤️.
" Credit: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images 2024 The pair attended the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics together, sharing a kiss on Sunday, August 11, as they sat on the sideline at the Team USA women's basketball gold medal game against France at the Bercy Arena. Bird and Rapinoe also attended the women's football gold medal match on Saturday, August 10, making the most of their time in the City of Love. In order to view the gallery, please allow Manage Cookies For access to all our exclusive celebrity videos and interviews – Subscribe on YouTube!.
