Ali Krieger & Ashlyn Harris Talk 'Love Strong' Soccer Life in Allure August 2020
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In a faraway time and place, women’s soccer fans celebrated the US Women’s National Team’s (USWNT) victory over the Netherlands with a New York City ticker-tape parade on Wednesday, July 10, 2019. Led by team co-captain Megan Rapinoe, goalie Ali Krieger held her phone high to capture the screaming-with-love crowd. Krieger’s fiancée Ashlyn Harris spread the love back to the adoring crowd, as America’s women’s soccer heroes proudly flashed blue and gold medals around their necks.
Their World Cup victory was an intoxicating victory in Trumplandia, millions of its citizens numbed with the Republican assault on hard-fought-for, progressive American values.
Fast forward a year and the now-married couple Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris cover the August 2020 issue of Allure magazine, lensed by Norman Jean Roy. Cotton Codinha conducts the interview.
Any blog posting only images of the Allure feature misses the main point of the story ‘Love Strong’. The USWNTis a political force to be reckoned with.
The Trump administration has waged a historic setback for women’s rights in America. And that war was in play before COVID-19 with its clear implications. There are days when I wonder if the refusal of Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration to fight COVID-19 is a strategic decision.
Their desire to return American women to the 1950s is well-established on AOC and in their own words. Suddenly America’s COVID-19 healthcare crisis has run into no plan to reopen American schools safely. From the view of Republicans’ seemingly heartless irresponsibility in the face of such suffering, the goal of making home and family the primary focus of American women just got a gift from the heavens.
After all, this is how Republicans misogynist brains process tragedy. Everything is a gift from God and a reminder that women, in particular, have a duty to be helpmates to men, taking care of men’s children. This belief is deeply embedded in their DNA and totally opposed to everything US Women’s Soccer stands for.
The USWNT is a movement
What's important to understand about the USWNT is that they are more than a sports team; they are a movement. Before their win over the Netherlands, heading into the quarter-finals with France, co--captain Rapinoe’s previously-recorded comments made the team’s position clear:
"Psssh, I'm not going to the f**king White House," Rapinoe said in response to a question by a reporter from soccer magazine Eight by Eight. No. I’m not going to the White House. We’re not gonna be invited. I doubt it.”
Trump was furious.
Their fight for equal pay is historic, as is their record of wins (four Olympic gold medals, four World Cups). But their sheer charisma is what keeps the fans engaged. Harris and Krieger are an integral part of that. We see their fallibility, their love, their mirth and sass, all interspersed with a bone-deep drive to win. In a time when women have taken knocks again and again in politics, business, and culture, here are women who win — and keep winning.
Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger discuss having kids often. "The unfortunate part is someone's going to have to give in their career," Ashlyn Harris tells ‘Allure’. Both She and Krieger now play for the Orlando Pride. "Which is not fair. Because we both love our jobs and have waited our whole lives for these moments. Just taking a year off ... where does that fit in? I can't even take a weekend off."
The interview is rich in newsworthy details and cultural thought. The most lasting image in the Allure interview with these world champs is the idea that parenting takes a village. A very famous woman once reminded us of this reality.
We learn that there are also "a lot of moms [on the team]" who make it work, Krieger says. For example, Sydney Leroux Dwyer has two children, while Alex Morgan welcomed her first child, daughter Charlie Elena, on May 7. Both Morgan, 31, and Leroux Dwyer, 30, are also married to fellow soccer players.
"When we're traveling, we carry the stroller and the [diaper] bag and then she's carrying the baby, or we're carrying the baby and she's getting all the stuff," Krieger explains.
Like I said, being a woman and mother of accomplishment requires a village — and the US soccer team has much to teach us about how to do that. ~ Anne
