USA soccer legend Megan Rapinoe announced that she will retire at the end of the 2023 NWSL season.

“I’ve been able to have such an incredible career, and this game has brought me all over the world and allowed me to meet so many amazing people. I feel incredibly grateful to have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it. To be able to play one last World Cup and one last NWSL season and go out on my own terms is incredibly special,” the 38-year-old said.

Rapinoe is engaged to Sue Bird. The couple started dating in 2016 and got engaged in 2020.

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Who is Sue Bird?

Born on October 16, 1980, Suzanne Brigit Bird is a former professional basketball player from the United States who spent her entire career with the Seattle Storm of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

Bird, who was selected by the Storm first overall in the WNBA draft in 2002, is regarded as one of the league’s all-time great players. Bird is the only WNBA player with championships in three different decades as of 2021. As their Basketball Operations Associate, she worked in the front office of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets. She has also participated in three Russian teams. She is a citizen of both the US and Israel.

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She won the New York Daily News, New York State, and WBCA Player of the Year awards while in high school. She won the Wade Trophy and the Naismith Award as College Player of the Year in 2002 while playing for the unbeaten University of Connecticut team.

She led her team to a record of 114-4 during her time at UConn, finishing the season ranked first in three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage, second in assists and steals, and a three-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the nation’s best point guard.

With the Storm, Bird has won a record-tying four WNBA titles (2004, 2010, 2018, 2020), five Olympic gold medals (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020), two NCAA titles (2000, 2002) with UConn, and four FIBA World Cups (2002, 2010, 2014, 2018).

Only 11 women have earned all four accolades, making her one of them. She has won the EuroLeague Women’s championship five times (2007-2010, 2013). She has been chosen for eight All-WNBA teams and thirteen WNBA All-Star teams over the course of her WNBA career.

On July 20, 2017, Bird announced that she was a lesbian and that she had been dating soccer player Megan Rapinoe since they had met at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

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She and Rapinoe made history in 2018 when they were the first same-sex couple to grace the “Body Issue” cover of ESPN The Magazine. On October 30, 2020, they made their engagement official. She was a member of the Queer 50 list for 2022.

Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe co-hosted the ESPYs in 2020 as the event’s first LGBTQ+ couple. The couple only wore clothing created by Black designers, and they wore Black Lives Matter shirts alongside Russell Wilson. Bird posed the question to the audience during the program: “Do you care about Black Americans beyond entertainment and sports?”

Bird announced her retirement from professional basketball after the 2022 WNBA season on June 16, 2022. Her season ended on September 7, 2022, when the Storm were defeated in the playoffs by the Las Vegas Aces.