President Obama met with the U.S. Women's National Team this morning, congratulating the soccer players on their World Cup win.
Channeling an Always ad, the president credited the athletes with teaching "all of America's children that playing like a girl means playing like a badass."
One of those children, Ayla, was in attendance, and read aloud from a letter she sent to the Obamas earlier this year. "I was watching the Women's World Cup, which I love so much, and my brother decides to come into the room and say, 'Ayla, boys are so much better at soccer than girls!'" the letter read. "I hate the fact that boys' sports always get the most attention."
The president, gently ribbing team members for their Wiki pages and Instagram accounts, made sure to highlight how much attention the athletes received this year. The final match was, after all, the most viewed soccer contest in American history (more so than any men's game). But he turned somber when discussing forward Abby Wambach. "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," Obama said, describing the iconic moment.
"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," he concluded, perhaps with Ayla and her brother in mind.
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