Throughout the journey from small town kid to Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion, “I was all about the game,” Scurry said. “I was a very private person in general — and I still am, very much so.” But there was one aspect of her personal life that she never felt she needed to hide from her teammates and coaches: “My national teams have always known I was gay.”

The environment on her teams was always one of acceptance and mutual respect, according to Scurry, but she has noticed a change since that iconic 1999 World Cup victory. More players are public about their sexual orientation — and many of them are being celebrated for coming out of the closet. “The society we live in now is very different,” Scurry said. “Even from last World Cup to now it’s very different.”

An Outsports tally found 17 publicly out participants — 15 players and two coaches — at this year’s Women’s World Cup. The impressive level of LGBT acceptance in women’s soccer can be attributed to a few different factors, said Laura Clise, board member of Athlete Ally, a nonprofit fighting homophobia and transphobia in sports. First, of course, is the fact that sports are a microcosm of society and as society has broadly become more accepting of LGBT individuals, there is increasingly space for athletes to go public about their sexuality without the same fear of backlash.

But another important factor, according to Clise, is the influence of players like Megan Rapinoe and Abby Wambach, both of whom are stars on the soccer field and vocal activists for LGBT causes off the field. “These early movers offer proof that it’s possible and acceptable to both be at the top of your game and true to who you are,” she said. “They play a really important role when it comes to shaping progress.”