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All but one US Women’s National Team player kneeled ahead of the Tokyo Olympics bronze-medal match.
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Carli Lloyd stood as her teammates took a knee before kickoff – after the national anthem played.
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Players from teams around the world have kneeled during the games to protest racism and inequality.
Throughout the women’s soccer tournament at the Tokyo Olympics, teams from around the world have kneeled before kickoff to protest racism and discrimination.
The US Women’s National Team has followed suit, and most of its players dropped to one knee ahead of their bronze-medal game against Australia’s Matildas.
Most, but not all.
US soccer legend Carli Lloyd stood with her hands on her hips as the team’s 10 other starters took a knee at Kashima Stadium on Thursday.
The Matildas stood side-by-side with linked arms while USWNT players, coaches, and staff members positioned on the sidelines joined the team’s starters in kneeling.
Even the referees kneeled as a demonstration against inequality.
Lloyd has consistently found herself in the minority among the team on the issue of kneeling. USWNT players knelt as the national anthem played ahead of various scrimmages late in 2020 and earlier this year. But Lloyd never joined her teammates, instead opting to always stand with her hand on her heart.
While competing at the Tokyo Olympics, all of the USWNT players stood during the anthem. Their kneeling came afterward, just before kickoff. Still, Lloyd stood.
She and pink-haired striker Megan Rapinoe – the face of the protest movement after kneeling in solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016 – each scored two goals in Thursday’s match to lead the USWNT past Australia and onto the podium.
The contest very well may have been Lloyd’s last for the stars and stripes, and if it was, she certainly closed her illustrious national team career on a high note. With her brace, the 39-year-old became the all-time leading scorer in USWNT Olympic history.
Read the original article on Insider