SEATTLE _ Two of Seattle's biggest sports stars sit side-by-side on a couch at Seattle Pacific University on this sunny spring day bantering playfully as they describe the challenges that come with a rite of passage many couples can identify with: Moving in together.
After dating for about a year and a half, the Reign's Megan Rapinoe moved into Storm star Sue Bird's Queen Anne neighborhood condo this year. It's been a mostly smooth transition, Bird says, smiling.
The women pack a double dose of Olympic-level athletic prowess into one household.
Bird, 37, is a two-time WNBA champion with the Storm, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, a three-time FIBA World Champion, and also won two NCAA titles at UConn.
Rapinoe, 32, boasts an equally impressive resume. She, too, has an Olympic gold medal, along with gold and silver Women's World Cup medals to go with the NCAA title she won at the University of Portland in 2005.
But while the medals stay locked in a bank safe-deposit box, the pair had to find space in their shared Queen Anne dwelling for some other collections: Bird's vast assortment of sneakers, and Rapinoe's seemingly endless wardrobe. Rapinoe co-founded a clothing line with her twin sister, Rachael, and has a reputation as a spiffy dresser with a unique sense of style.
"Megan is very much into fashion. And I wouldn't just call it clothing." Bird says. "She's into everything _ clothing, bags, shoes. She's on top of the new stuff for sure. I love sneakers. My storage room is 75 percent sneakers."
Try stuffing all that into one urban condo. Needless to say, some skillful negotiations took place.
"I was like, 'Can I have this shelf?' " Rapinoe says.
"Five shelves," Bird clarifies.
Rapinoe: "Then, a month later, I was like, 'Can I have another shelf?' "
"Ten shelves," Bird interjects.
"Now, I have the whole second bedroom closet," Rapinoe says, beaming. "It was kinda one of those things where you have to just inch your way through it."
How two of the biggest stars of the two most popular women's team sports in the United States became an iconic couple is a tale that's attracted rabid interest nationwide since last summer, when the usually-private Bird revealed in an interview with ESPNW that she's gay and dating Rapinoe.
That story blew up in part because, despite recent advances in LGBTQ rights, it's somewhat unusual for high-profile athletes to come out as gay during their careers. Bird and Rapinoe are A-listers within their respective realms, and news that they were dating vaulted them toward the Ellen DeGeneres/Portia DeRossi stratosphere of iconography within the LGBTQ community.
"At the end of the day, Sue's coming out and Megan being so open (about her sexuality) it's not the impact within their leagues (that's most noteworthy), it's the courage they inspire in those kids who've been told they're straight all their lives and are still trying to find their way," says Cyd Zeigler, founder of OutSports.com, a site dedicated to telling the stories of LGBT athletes.
Zeigler co-founded OutSports in 1999. In that time, he can't recall another out LGBT couple that combined the wattage of star power Bird and Rapinoe represent.
"They're two legends in their sports. You have one of the highest profile and best female soccer players in the history of the U.S., and one of the highest profile and best female basketball players, together," Zeigler says.
"As a couple, they speak to other issues that a light isn't always shined on in sports," adds Hudson Taylor, the founder of Athlete Ally, a nonprofit that advocates for inclusion for LGBT athletes in sports. "By having two (out, lesbian) athletes dating one another, it allows you to focus a deeper personal lens on what LGBTQ relationships are like on a daily basis."
So, from interviews with Bird and Rapinoe and those closest to them, here's a glimpse at how this superstar pairing came to be, and what life is like for the pre-eminent Seattle sports couple.
