Alex Morgan Called for Equality in Soccer During Her SI Swimsuit Cover Photo Shoot

In recent years, the athlete has turned her words into action through her namesake organization, the Alex Morgan Foundation.

Alex Morgan was photographed by Ben Watts in St. Lucia / Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated

Over the course of her professional soccer career, Alex Morgan has proven herself wholeheartedly dedicated to growing the game. She doesn’t simply want more girls to take up the game of soccer, though. She wants more girls to have greater opportunities where soccer (and, for that matter, other professional sports endeavors) are concerned.

For years, the 35-year-old has put that goal at the forefront of her mission on the soccer field and beyond. It is that very sentiment that has, in recent months and years, motivated the work done by her eponymous foundation, the Alex Morgan Foundation. And it is that very sentiment that Morgan expressed on the set of her 2019 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photo shoot.

It wasn’t her first experience with the brand—she had already posed for the magazine twice. But it proved to be a momentous one. Not only did the experience in St. Lucia furnish her first SI Swimsuit cover feature, but it also gave her the chance to share the experience with her U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) teammates. The California native was joined on set by Crystal Dunn, Megan Rapinoe and Abby Dahlkemper. It was just months before the 2019 World Cup, and the squad had soccer on their minds.

In particular, several of them touched on the fight for equality of opportunity in their sport. The fight, according to Morgan, wasn’t about bettering their careers. It was about bettering the careers of future players. “My hope is that the future generation can focus on playing and that equality is a given, isn’t a fight,” she told the team while on set. “I don’t know if in my generation true equality will be given, but my hope is that we do set that next generation up to have even more opportunity than we currently do just as the last generation did for us. And I also hope that I inspire the next generation to use their platform and use their voice on important issues.”

When the soccer star retired from the game in September, she left feeling as though some progress had been made where opportunities for the future generation are concerned. “Charlie came up to me the other day and said when she grows up she wants to be a soccer player,” Morgan said of her young daughter during her retirement announcement. “It just made me like immensely proud ... because a pathway [to professional athletics] exists that even a 4-year-old can see now.”

Of course, there remains work to be done, and Morgan knows that. In fact, she’s seeing to the fact that it gets done through her foundation.

In honor of the athlete’s continued fight for equality, we’re taking a look back at that 2019 photo shoot, where she shared her insights into the matter. Here are a few of our favorite photos from the trip.

Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated

Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated

Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated