How Tireless Soccer Star Alex Morgan Always Stays Ready For One More
From co-leading Team USA and corralling a 2-year-old to landing coveted brand partnership deals, there’s never a dull moment for the San Diego native.
Alexandra Morgan Carrasco has already had quite the year.
When she spoke with Elite Daily, the soccer star and media mogul was in the car on the way to lunch after finishing an ad campaign shoot in her native home of San Diego, a city she recently relocated to after signing with the San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League last December. The shoot was Morgan’s first as a part of the BODYARMOR team, as she just recently joined the ranks of other high profile athlete ambassadors in promoting the brand’s “One More” campaign. And yet, her most exciting first had occurred just days earlier.
On February 22, 2022, Morgan and a group of her fellow U.S. women's national teammates won their hard-fought battle for equal pay in a gender discrimination lawsuit, resulting in a $24 million back pay settlement and a landmark agreement to ensure equal pay for male and female players in U.S. soccer going forward. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Morgan tells Elite Daily how happy she is to finally move forward and return to what her and her teammates are supposed to be doing: playing soccer and bringing home championships.
“It's been a very long fight, one that we've really had to be strategic about, one that we've really been passionate about, and one that we wanted to see the end of,” Morgan says. While the monetary amount of the settlement is hugely important, the symbolic weight of the decision has also not been lost on Morgan. “Finally we can all agree on the true value that we as women bring to the federation.”
While Morgan and teammates could not be happier about the decision, she has also noticed the impact the settlement has had on fans as well as aspiring women soccer players around the globe. “We have gotten just an overwhelming response of people supporting us and celebrating this big feat and … it really is groundbreaking that we were able to win back pay, equal conditions and treatment, and equal pay moving forward.”
One particular group this settlement impacts most immediately is the US team’s upcoming freshman class. Morgan notes that among the young players on the US team, she sees a lot of eagerness as well as anticipation. “I think that everyone is just really looking forward to this summer and qualifying for the World Cup and then [onto] next year in Australia.” While those newer players on the team try to find their footing, Morgan knows it is her responsibility to act as their guide and a mentor and to help instill the confidence needed of them to play on a national stage. “For me, as a veteran and a leader, I want every single player to feel like they belong because at the end of the day, you're not going to get the best of someone if they're not confident, if they don't feel like they belong, if they don't feel like they can speak up.”
Morgan’s role as team mentor doesn’t end with the U.S. national team. As a member of the San Diego Wave, a newer edition to the National Women's Soccer League, Morgan finds herself filling a blank space she saw as a youth. “I'm very happy to be a part of an organization that's starting from ground zero… there's always been this need for a women's sports team [in San Diego] and there really never has been one here, at least not for quite a few years, and so to be able to fill that void and give all of the youth girls clubs this inspiration…. it's really important.” Having grown up in Southern California, playing with the Wave feels like a coming home of sorts. “I haven't really been in Southern California since my youth, so being able to be here within an hour and a half of almost all of my immediate family, it's really nice,” Morgan says. This proximity to family is even more important now that Morgan is a mother. “I kind of like this slower-paced lifestyle, especially with a daughter now, so living in a sleepier beach town is definitely my vibe and I'm very happy to be able to just be able to watch the sunset every single night.”
Just shy of her daughter’s third birthday, Morgan’s life has been quite different since welcoming Charlie Elena Carrasco to the family, but Morgan wouldn’t have it any other way. “Being a mom, it just changes everything, my priority is my family and Charlie,” says Morgan. “For the last four years, I have been mostly plant-based in my diet and [while] I haven't tried to make her vegan or vegetarian, in general she eats what I eat, so I would say that it's very packed with greens and fruits.”
Morgan’s health conscious attitude seemed to make her a natural fit for healthy brands trying to make an impact. So when Morgan was approached by BODYARMOR to be part of the team, the answer seemed obvious. “BODYARMOR's a really natural fit for me because there's no artificial flavors, which I love, and it's a way for me to be able to get the hydration that I need, both on the soccer field and off the soccer field.”
For Morgan, aligning herself with a brand means aligning herself with a product, and as a new mother, she doesn’t take that responsibility lightly. “When I go out on the soccer field, I drink BODYARMOR every single day,” she tells Elite Daily. “At this point in my career, there's no point in trying to sell something that I personally am not going to use. The fact that the electrolytes in BODYARMOR come from potassium rather than sodium is a huge thing, [and] the fact that you have the options of both BODYARMOR Sports Drink or BODYARMOR LYTE, as well as a high alkaline water with BODYARMOR SportWater, I think is really important.”
Morgan needs all that extra fuel for her ambitious future projects. Her move to Southern California has also put her within striking distance of Hollywood as she builds on the success of her media company TOGETHXR, which just recently turned a year old. With expansion as the main goal, Morgan wants her company to go even bigger, producing both short-form and long-form documentaries, building out their social media channels as well as “being as much of an inclusive community for women as possible.”
While her life sure has been a whirlwind, Morgan is now at the top of her game, shining bright on and off the field, as an athlete, mother, feminist, and new media entrepreneur. When asked what advice she would give to her teenage self, Morgan laughs and without hesitation says to reach for the stars. “I think a lot of the time I was really hesitant,” she says. “I tried to stay in my lane but as I grew up on the national team, I started to feel more confident with myself. I started to speak out about the things that I was passionate about. And I would just say from the very beginning, do what you want, do what makes you proud, and be a disruptor.”
