Months after winning the World Cup, the U.S Women’s soccer team was finally honored by President Obama at the White House.
“This team taught all of America’s children that ‘playing like a girl’ means you’re a badass,” he said. Obama kept the meeting light-hearted, joked around about his presidency ending soon, and gave a huge shout-out to the team’s savior Carli Lloyd, who scored a hat trick during the World Cup.
“And Carli’s performance was so good that by the time the game was over, someone had changed her title on Wikipedia from ‘midfielder’ to ‘president of the United States.’ Which, by the way, the job is about to open up,” Obama said.
Showing that he’s still hip, Barack also joked about Sydney Leroux’s internet-famous chihuahua, Boss, who has 10,000 Twitter followers.
He also took the time to praise Abby Wambach for her tremendous leadership skills. Upon announcing her retirement from the game of soccer, President Obama said, “I’m not sure [Abby] could have written a better ending: a world champion at last, draped in the Stars and Stripes, showing us all how far we’ve come -– on and off the field –- by sharing a celebratory kiss with her wife.”
Bigger than the sport itself, Obama is appreciative of how the team’s success has played a huge part in changing out-of-date stereotypes. “They’ve inspired millions of girls to dream bigger, and by the way, inspired millions of boys to look at girls differently, which is just as important.”
“Playing like a girl means being the best,” the president said at the end of his speech. “That’s what American women do. That’s what American girls do. That’s why we celebrate this team. They’ve done it with class. They’ve done it with the right way. They’ve done it with excitement. They’ve done with style. We are very, very proud of them.”
The ceremony ended just as you’d expect…with a selfie.
SOURCE: Mashable, Twitter | VIDEO SOURCE: Inform
