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U.S. women’s national soccer team legend Carli Lloyd made headlines in her final international championship match during the bronze medal game of the 2020 Toyko Olympics when she decided not to kneel with the rest of her team prior to kickoff.
She is now saying why she decided to do so.
Lloyd joined CBS Sports’ "Kickin’ It" and went deep into her reasoning behind why she did not kneel for this match, which had become a normal occurrence during sporting events to protest racism following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
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Carli Lloyd waves to fans after her final game as a member of the U.S. women's national soccer team at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Oct. 26, 2021. (David Berding/Getty Images)
Lloyd admitted that she felt kneeling simply became "a thing to do." It had been over a year since the death of Floyd, as the 2020 Olympics was moved to the summer of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I’m in support of actionable change," Lloyd explained to a panel that included host Kate Abdo and former U.S. men’s national team players Maurice Edu and Clint Dempsey. "I just felt like it was just a thing to do. It was just beginning to feel like a thing to do. It was an empty stadium. I don’t know how many people were watching the game. It was 10 seconds before. It wasn’t like our team was wearing coats — it was a global thing that people were doing.
"In that moment, I just kinda had enough of kneeling right before the game because we did it for a whole year or so leading up."
Lloyd pointed out earlier in the segment that her deciding not to kneel was not during the national anthem — it was rather 10 seconds before the match began.
"So it wasn’t necessarily a protest per se, but I guess everybody in the English Premier League was taking a knee [before kickoff]," she said. "So we had done it every game, and I knew that was going to be my last world championship game. So I wanted to stand. I’d kneeled all the other times, and for me, that was just playing a game."
When asked by Abdo if Lloyd was trying to send a message by standing instead of kneeling, she said, "It was literally nothing."
Carli Lloyd looks on during a Legends Tournament ahead of The Best FIFA Football Awards 2022 at Centre Sportif Emilie Antoine in Paris on Feb. 27, 2023. (Joe Maher - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
"It was 10 seconds before kickoff. I just felt like I had done it five other times and I just wanted to stand for this one. There was no other thought or anything," she said.
Edu gave his perspective on what Lloyd’s action meant to him.
"In that moment, I felt like it dampened the situation, or kind of felt like a slight in a way. Just in that moment, I remember watching it thinking, ‘What the hell?’" he admitted. Lloyd responded by saying she respected that opinion.
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"Look, I think that there is no perfect nation," Lloyd added earlier in the discussion. "There is a lot of things that need to be different. There’s a lot more respect people need to show. I’ve always viewed every single person as a human being, no matter what you look like, no matter who you are, no matter what you represent. I think the beautiful thing about our world is we all have different opinions. But I think we’ve gotten to a point where if it’s not a certain opinion, then other people can’t have their other opinions. It’s kinda contradicting itself."
The final question from Abdo was whether Lloyd would do it all the same again.
U.S. forward Carli Lloyd is seen after a friendly soccer match between Korea Republic and the U.S. at Childrens Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, on Oct 21, 2021. (Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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"Probably," she responded. "I think that people maybe look into things too much. Like you’re asking, ‘What was your reasoning?’ I kneeled five other times and in my last game, I was honed in. I wanted a medal. I wanted to just focus on that."