There are things that stop even the most relentless competitors cold. For Megan Rapinoe, two-time World Cup champion and one of the most decorated players in the history of women's soccer, that thing was coming home.
On the premiere episode of her new podcast A Touch More: The Beautiful Game, released the same day the FIFA World Cup 2026 kicked off, Rapinoe sat down with former teammate and close friend Abby Wambach and shared something she hadn't said publicly before about her older brother Michael's death last year.
'I went home last year after my older brother Michael died,' Rapinoe told Wambach. "He had a long battle with alcoholism and it was sad.'
The disclosure came during a wide-ranging conversation about what elite athletic careers cost the people who live them including the time lost and the parts of yourself that go undeveloped while you're busy becoming legendary. Rapinoe, who retired from professional soccer in 2023, said the time she spent at home after Michael's death was unlike anything her career had allowed.
'I just was thinking so much while I was home,' she said. 'Wow, I can't even remember the last time I was home for this long, not for a holiday or a wedding or something.'
What struck her was what dealing with that grief revealed about her brother and herself. 'We now both have brothers that have died,' Rapinoe said, acknowledging that Wambach has experienced a similar loss. 'I see the obsession and compulsion and addiction in myself in him too. And it's like you're searching for something.'
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That line, 'you're searching for something,' ran through much of the conversation. Wambach had just finished describing looking at herself in the mirror after breaking the all-time international goals record and asking what she had actually been chasing. Rapinoe's reflection on Michael had a similar undertone, touching on what drives people and what need they're trying to fulfill.
The episode is the launch of Rapinoe's seven-week World Cup interview series, in which she sits down with some of soccer's biggest names to explore what the tournament means to them. But the discussion of grief from personal loss and the often overlooked issues that come with a singular drive is what made this first episode so memorable.
Rapinoe has always been willing to go to the uncomfortable places publicly. That hasn't changed in retirement. If anything, stepping away from the game has given her more room to speak plainly about what the years of competing actually looked like from the inside. And it's likely we'll here more over the coming weeks.
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