USWNT's Megan Rapinoe Hopes to Play in Tokyo Games, Fears Olympics Are 'In Doubt'

USWNT star Megan Rapinoe told CNN's David Axelrod that while she is hopeful that she'll be able to compete in the Tokyo Olympics, now set to be held in the summer of 2021, she isn't sure if the games will in fact occur. 

"Frankly, I think the Olympics are in doubt next year," she said in an episode of CNN's "The Axe Files" podcast released Monday. "The more I think about it logistically, just bringing everybody together like that with the absence of drug therapies or anything like that just seems difficult.

"Certainly, you want to be able to go out the way that you want to and not sort of be pushed out by a pandemic."

In late March, the 2020 games were postponed until next summer as a result of the global health crisis.

Earlier this week, Rapinoe and fellow U.S. star Alex Morgan appeared on Good Morning America, where they expressed their shock and dismay after a federal judge dismissed the players' arguments that they were systematically underpaid by U.S. Soccer in comparison to the men's national team.

Rapinoe said the judge's ruling was "very disappointing" and "missed the point." Morgan reiterated that they would appeal the decision. Both players were class representatives in the suit.

"This decision was out of left field for us," Morgan said. "I think for both sides it was very unexpected so we will definitely be appealing and moving forward. If anyone knows anything about part this team–we are fighters and we'll continue to fight together for this."

Last Friday, Judge R. Gary Klausner of the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled the USWNT players "have not demonstrated a triable issue that WNT players are paid less than MNT players." U.S. Soccer contested that women's players were paid more in total and on a per-game basis than the men's players from 2015 to 2019.

Rapinoe won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France, and is looking to make her third Olympic team. 

"Absolutely right decision, 100 percent agree with it," Rapinoe said when the Tokyo games were postponed. "There's just no way that I can imagine that a convening of that many people—even if you did only athletes—that that was going to be safe."

In December, she was named Sports Illustrated's 2019 Sportsperson of the Year, becoming only the fourth woman in the award's 66-year history to win it unaccompanied.