"Standing on the shoulders of Sue" - Megan Rapinoe lauds fiancee and WNBA legends for Caitlin Clark and women's sports rise

Former US women's national soccer player Megan Rapinoe credited women's basketball phenom Caitlin Clark for laying the foundation for the next generation of players.

Clark is one of the major names headlining the 2024 WNBA season and the Iowa Hawkeyes star will suit up for the Indiana Fever this season. Speaking at the Business of Women's Sports Summit in New York on Tuesday, the 2x Olympic medalist credited her fiance Sue Bird along with a few more WNBA stars who put the limelight on the sport.

While calling her experience at the Final Four incredible, Rapinoe also added:

"It felt like it was what the game deserved and what I think fans of women's sports really deserved and I think in a huge part, it's because Caitlin is standing on the shoulders of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore and Dawn Staleys and Lisa Leslies -- everybody."

Rapinoe and Bird met at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and got engaged in 2020. The WNBA star was drafted by the Seattle Storm first overall in the 2002 WNBA draft and is widely considered one of the greatest players to grace the court. Interestingly, in October 2020, she became only the third WNBA or NBA player to win titles in three different decades.

Now, with Caitlin Clark set to make her WNBA debut, Megan Rapinoe couldn't have been more right about the impact women superstars have had on basketball.

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Sue Bird came out as gay in 2017, announcing her relationship with Megan Rapinoe

While Megan Rapioe came out as gay in public in 2012, her partner Bird didn't until 2017. According to Bleacher Report, she said:

I'm gay. Megan's my girlfriend. ... These aren't secrets to people who know me. don't feel like I've not lived my life. People assume 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."

She also added that it was about the timing:

"It's happening when it's happening because that's what feels right. So even though I understand there are people who think I should have done it sooner, it wasn't right for me at the time. I have to be true to that. It's my journey."

At the time of writing, both Megan Rapinoe and Bird are planning their wedding saying they were toying with the idea of getting married in Mexico following their engagement.