Megan Rapinoe, Team USA and CBD: Reaching New Olympic Highs

Team USA Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe after scoring a rare corner kick in Tokyo (right) and holding a Mendi CBD product (left).

Team USA Women's Soccer may not have taken the gold at the Tokyo Olympics, but finishing in third place is nothing to be embarrassed about. In the semifinal game against Australia, Megan Rapinoe scored two goals, leading the U.S. to a 4-3 victory to earn the bronze.

One of her goals was a fabulous left corner kick that bent past the goalie into the net. It's known as the "Olympico." Watch below.

Rapinoe uses CBD. In fact, she and her sister Rachael are affiliated with the CBD product line, Mendi. Megan caught some flack prior to the start of the Summer Games because she was allowed to continue using CBD while track star Sha'Carri Richardson was barred from participating in Tokyo because she failed a drug test for THC in June. The World Anti-Doping Agency removed CBD from the list of banned substances, but THC remains on it. That's the rub.

Megan Rapinoe: "The THC part of cannabis is still a little taboo, but it's starting to turn."

Whether Rapinoe stashed CBD in her luggage upon arrival in Tokyo is unclear. Perhaps she didn't take a chance since Japan has a very strict anti-drug policy. 

Rapinoe disccusses her CBD advocacy at the Mendi website:

"I kind of have my own personal journey with it. And I also had a personal journey with prescription drugs, opiates and sleeping pills and all of that kind of stuff. Not that I ever abused it, but just the regularity with which it’s been handed out for athletes who aren’t sleeping well due to jet lag, sore muscles, hurt or whatever. I just absolutely think CBD as an alternative can help athletes be the best that they can at their craft.

"And also just in general, the kind of societal effect in terms of social justice that weed has had on this country is just absurd. And there's so many people sitting in jail for 10 or 20+ years for weed. And that's just stupid. From a social perspective we're long overdue for legalization of cannabis. So I want to kind of validate cannabis and CBD and put my name on it and do it for the right reasons.

RELATED: CelebStoner's Top 45 Celebrity Cannabis Brands

"CBD is becoming much more accepted, but I still think that there's a taboo around cannabis and THC in general. It's still kind of like, OK, what does that mean? You're just like getting high every night? Whereas, if you partner with an alcohol brand as an athlete, people aren’t assuming you're getting hammered every night.

"I think CBD is starting to make a lot of inroads in becoming more socially accepted and just more widely accepted especially among athletes. The THC part of cannabis is still a little taboo, but it's starting to turn."

Sadly, that's why Rapinoe was able to compete in Tokyo and Richardson wasn't.

 

Become a Patron!

 

Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom

Publisher of CelebStoner.com, former editor of High Times and Freedom Leaf and co-author of Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness.