Empowering Women Through Sports

As you may know by now, this podcast is an inspirational tool, and illustrates through an athlete’s eye how beneficial sports can be throughout life.
We hear from our interviewees how sports build confidence, and that through working together as a team, we can achieve great things.
In this episode, I have the absolute pleasure of speaking with Robin Farina, a former professional cyclist who has transformed her cycling career and love of sports into full time endurance coaching. Robin will share some insights on her coaching methods to helps us all in achieving our goals.
Robin also loves travel, food and wine – a great combination! - and she has incorporated bike and wine tours to cycling-centric places around the world. Robin truly embodies all of the attributes we acquire from sports.

If overcoming adversity makes us stronger, Liz Clark is superhuman.

In 2005, Liz left California's Santa Barbara harbor aboard SWELL, her 40’ sailboat in search of remote surf breaks from Mexico through Central America, Galapagos, French Polynesia and beyond. Every surfer’s dream, right? Well, this transoceanic wave hunt was an invite for adversity with the navigational, mechanical, gnarly weather and forecasting challenges, injuries, and illnesses. Add to that the cross cultural and gender barriers when entering foreign countries as a female solo-sailing captain. In her book - "Swell – A Sailing Surfer’s Voyage of Awakening", she goes well beyond what we can cover in this episode. I feel so fortunate to have reached her for this interview and I’m excited to share our discussion with you.

Kimmy Fasani - Snowboarder, athlete, business owner, co-author of cookbook, mother of 2! Kimmy has been a leader in women’s snowboarding since she became the first female snowboarder to land a double backflip in the park and the powder in 2011. Since then, Kimmy has appeared in dozens of snowboarding film segments, graced the cover and pages of snowboarding magazines, promotes many brands as a sponsored rider and continues to push the level of progression in her sport. As a mother, she still travels and promotes the companies she rides for and they have stepped up as well, to embrace her choice to be a mom and athlete.

Love to ski and bike? How about working with your best friend? Well, that’s what Kelli Hart and Melissa Alder are doing. They own a specialty ski and bike shop in West Yellowstone. This episode is about how our love for sports can lead us to follow our passions into business and a career. Through sports and teams, we make meaningful friendships and create deep rooted relationships with like-minded people.

Phaidra Knight is multidimensional. She is the only African American inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, she earned a law degree, is President of the Women's Sports Foundation, and recently launched PSK Collective, a gen Z/Rugby inspired clothing line. All of these achievements she says are much in part due to the support of her family and of course her sports career. This episode delves into the benefit of sports, how the WSF is helping to grown and foster sports among marginalized communities, challenges and solutions to diversity/equity/inclusion, and how a support system is the bedrock for achieving goals.

Celebrate with us - National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD). My daughter, Quinn Ferguson hosts this episode as she interviews me to discover how sports play a role in my adult life.
It was president Ronald Reagan, in 1987 who signed this proclamation for National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD). It’s the 35th annual now, and it acknowledges the accomplishments of female athletes, recognizes the positive influence of sports for women and girls, and honors the progress and continuing struggle for equality for women in sports.
Women'sSportsFoundation.org is a big advocate for NGWSD. It’s a great organization that exists to unlock the possibilities in every girl and woman through the power of sport. The Women’s Sports Foundation dot org - strives for equality in sports and social justice too.

This episode is about determination. Annabel Heinemann is a mountain athlete in all types of skiing - alpine, telemark and backcountry. She is a ski patroller, mountaineer and mountain biker. Determination is what Annabel possesses in her sports, as well as in her career and family. And, as you'll hear, determination has been needed to survive and thrive.