PARIS — When she scored the first of her two goals in Friday’s 2-1 victory over France in the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup, on a cunning and elusive free kick, Megan Rapinoe ran to the corner of the field and held her arms aloft.

The gesture was not a mere celebration. It seemed to say, this is all of me. Take me for the bold, complex person that I am: big personality; social activist; champion of equal pay; national anthem protester; presidential critic; lavender-haired soccer star of ruthless and creative purpose.

Out, and out front, Rapinoe has perhaps become the representative athlete of our times — wearing the jersey of a nation that is divided, playing for a team that is not, fearless and unapologetic about demanding excellence from herself and fair and equitable treatment by others.

Many sports teams tend to retreat into a bubble when it comes to difficult topics and moments, to offer bland and insipid “one game at a time” pablum. Not Rapinoe and this United States women’s team. It sued U.S. Soccer for gender discrimination before the tournament. And once it arrived in France, Rapinoe (on camera) and her teammate Ali Krieger (on Twitter) jousted with President Trump. Krieger already had made news here, by suggesting that the Americans’ depth left the United States not only with the best team in the World Cup, but also with the second-best.