Fifa Women’s World Cup: Megan Rapinoe’s Trump protest is a right all athletes should enjoy

US women’s national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe doesn’t take a knee during The Star Spangled-Banner any more, that would be against US Soccer Federation rules, but she has found a quiet way to continue protesting regardless.

During the US national anthem, Rapinoe has been standing silently, which originally dates back to September 2016 in solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was protesting racial injustice in America. And what started as an act of unity by taking a knee with another professional athlete has become a pretty clear middle finger to President Donald Trump, his administration, his policies and the man himself.

Trump, interviewed recently by The Hill, spoke about the Fifa Women’s World Cup and said he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for Rapinoe to do what she does, or more accurately, doesn’t do during the anthem. She neither holds her hand over her heart or sings along. Rapinoe is obliged by US Soccer Federation to “stand respectfully” during the anthem, but not required to do anything else.

It’s fair to say Rapinoe’s actions have now morphed into a full blown repudiation of Trump himself as the midfielder, a lesbian who was raised Christian, called herself a “walking protest” in an interview before the World Cup kicked off. Rapinoe doubled down on the whole thing recently, declaring in an interview with Eight by Eight that she’s “not going to the f****** White House” if her team wins their fourth World Cup. Trump responded in typical Trump fashion, stating he will now invite the team regardless if they win or lose and twisted Rapinoe's words incorrectly in the process to benefit himself. 

One can only imagine how horribly awkward it would be for 28 women, who are currently in negotiations with the US Soccer Federation over gross pay inequality issues which have pushed them to sue their employers, to hang out with a man accused of being a serial philander, groper and assaulter of women in the workplace.

As Trump brushes off another round of sexual assault allegations and his administration works to kick out immigrants, tells women what to do with their wombs and picks fights with Iran, it begs the question: how conflicted do some athletes get these days representing their countries?

Here in Hong Kong the question is white hot. Sarah Lee Wai-sze recently made headlines by posting a cryptic message on Hong Kong that read “Come On” which many interpreted as support for the protests against the much despised extradition bill. Lee is in Germany where she won two gold medals at the Cottbuser Sprint Cup, which would have prompted the playing of the March of the Volunteers.

The list seems endless right now and one has to wonder what is running through athlete’s minds as they stand for the anthem while the “one country, two systems” policy of governing Hong Kong is being tested.

Last weekend 19-year-old Oscar Coggins won his first Asia Triathlon Championship for Hong Kong after surrendering his British passport. Siobhan Haughey, now University of Michigan alumni, recently tore up the pool in an international meet in Monaco, and if all goes according to plan, Hong Kong’s men’s 15-a-side national rugby team will win their second Asia Rugby Championship crown on home soil at Hong Kong Football Club on Saturday.

Last November, the team made headlines with a rousing rendition of March of the Volunteers before a 2019 Rugby World Cup repechage game in Marseille, France. The fact that most of the team are naturalised foreigners adds a rather interesting wrinkle to this whole debate. In 2015, a now notorious World Cup football qualifying match in Mong Kok Stadium between Hong Kong and China saw fans unfurl banners that read: “Hong Kong is not China”.

Add in the fact that there is a bill making its way through Hong Kong’s legislature that would criminalise insulting the March of the Volunteers, and one wonders how anyone can make sense of this whole patriotic mess. There is no doubt Hong Kong’s “elected” officials are out of step with the people, and listening to March of the Volunteers every time a Hong Kong athlete or team wins an event, medal or championship must make most competitors and spectators feel conflicted.

At the basis of freedom is one’s ability to express themselves however they want, as long as it doesn’t infringe on another’s rights. Rapinoe dyes her hair blue and pink, and makes no apologies for her personal and political beliefs. Many applaud her actions, and state that her exercising free speech rights is as American as apple pie.

If we can’t protest, be it during the anthem or not, are we even citizens to begin with? Society isn’t much more than a colourless conveyor belt of conformity if we can’t raise our fists when we think injustice is being cast upon us.

Protesting, some might argue, is as human as humans can get.