Hear Her Sports

American Ellie Smart is a professional high diver competing in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. She started competing in the World Series events in 2017 on the rough Irish coast of Inis Mór and earned a permanent place in the women’s line-up for the 2019 season with a third place at the FINA World Cup. Ellie started her career as a diver at five years old when she competed in her first diving meet. She then went on to compete as an NC-double A diver as an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley. In addition to being a professional cliff diver, Ellie founded The Clean Cliffs, Minnesota Diving Academy, and The High Diving Institute. Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www.patreon.com/hearhersports Find all episodes hearhersports.com Find Ellie in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series at https://www.redbull.com/int-en/event-series/redbull-cliffdiving Or at the High Diving Institute in Utah https://www.highdivinginstitute.com/ Or on IG at https://www.instagram.com/ellietsmart/

Olympian Iris Wang is a singles badminton player from Los Angeles, California. She started playing as a young kid and has been competing internationally and frequently medaling for more than a decade in singles, doubles, and team competitions. She competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, won bronze medals in both the 2015 and 2019 Pan Am Games, and has had a world ranking as high as 30th. In January she was eledted to the Badminton World Federation Athletes’ Commission, a position she will hold through 2025. Iris graduated with a bachelor’s in business economics from UCLA. Outside of badminton, she enjoys reading, drawing, and binging Netflix shows. Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www.patreon.com/hearhersports Find all episodes hearhersports.com Find Iris on IG at https://www.instagram.com/ibleepbloop/

Helena Gilbert-Snyder is a financial analyst at Specialized Bicycles. She also races bikes at the professional level across dirt, road, and gravel disciplines. This season, a big focus is the Lifetime Grand Prix, a new televised off-road series with a big prize purse. She is the youngest rider competing in the six-race series. Helena is highly involved with several local high school mountain bike teams through NICA (the National Interscholastic Cycling Association), with her local road racing organization, and is an active advocate for women's sports and gender equity at a broader level. Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www.patreon.com/hearhersports Find all episodes hearhersports.com Find Helena at https://www.helenagilbertsnyder.com/ Or on IG at https://www.instagram.com/hel.racer/

Stacy T. Sims is an applied researcher, innovator, and entrepreneur in human performance, specifically sex differences in training, nutrition, and environmental conditions. Between 2007 and 2012, she served as an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist at Stanford University, where she specialized in sex differences with environmental and nutritional considerations for recovery and performance, specializing in women's health and performance. With co-author Selene Yeager she wrote the groundbreaking book ROAR and their new book Next Level: Your Guide to Kicking Ass, Feeling Great, and Crushing Goals Through Menopause and Beyond is due out in the next few weeks. In 2012 she cofounded OSMO Nutrition, a sports nutrition company with male and female specific hydration and recovery products. Stacy is well-known as a leading expert in sex differences in training, nutrition, and health often being named a visionary in the sports industry including, one of the top four visionaries in the outdoor sports industry

Olympian Michelle Sechser is a lightweight rower. At Tokyo 2020 she finished 5th in the lightweight double sculls, an incredibly exciting race where the top 5 boats where less than a second apart. She has a long list of international and national results including a win in the lightweight double sculls at the 2021 World Rowing Final Olympic Qualification Regatta and a second in the OPEN weight double sculls at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. She’s been a USA National Team rower for nine years. Michelle was born in San Luis Obispo, California and began rowing at age 14 for Capital Crew after seeing how much her older sister was enjoying the sport. She attended University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a D1 school, on a full ride scholarship. She then earned an MBA at the same school and transitioned into coaching there. Once out of school, she decided to learn how to scull, which is rowing with 2 oars, as compared to sweep rowing, which is with 1 oar because she wanted to try out for the National Team. As I mentioned,

Ishveen Jolly is an expert in sports marketing. She worked as a sports agent for many years and is now building her company, Open Sponsorship, to lead the sports marketplace by connecting brands and athletes for digital, effective, and data driven marketing campaigns. Open Sponsorship has twelve thousand athletes and clients such as Walmart, Stitch Fix, and Footlocker on the platform. They have raised over Five point Five million dollars from a range big names in sports business, including Serena Williams, 76ers owner David Blitzer, and Eric Stern. Ishveen was included on the Forbes 30 under 30 sports list and Inc's top 100 female CEOs. She is also an athlete herself starting as a child through college where she played Netball and Cricket at Oxford University. Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www.patreon.com/hearhersports Find all episodes at hearhersports.com Find Open Sponsorship at: https://opensponsorship.com/ Find Ishveen on IG at https://www.instagram.com/ishveenj/ on Twitter at https://twitter.com/

Raquel Vélez is the Founder and CEO of Alpine Parrot, an outdoor apparel company that caters specifically to people of size and people of color. She brings with her almost two decades of engineering experience. She received her degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech, worked and studied as a robotics engineer, and eventually shifted over to software engineering and engineering management. Now, as an apparel engineer, she's creatively tackling one of the oldest (and most polluting) industries by creating sustainable, inclusive clothing for a market of people that has so often been neglected in the outdoor space. As a plus sized Latina who discovered her love of the outdoors later in life, Raquel has put an incredible amount of careful consideration into the design of each product, focusing on great fit and quality construction. Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www.patreon.com/hearhersports Find all episodes hearhersports.com Find Alpine Parrot at https://alpineparrot.com/

Tory Mather began rowing in high school after a friend convinced her to try Learn to Row. She rowed Division 1 at Marist College, where she was unanimously voted captain her senior year. After college, she moved to Philadelphia to focus on lightweight rowing from 2012 -2014. During this time, she medaled at Head of the Charles and Club Nationals in the lightweight four. After struggling to make weight and dealing with related health issues, she quit. Later, convinced by friends, she returned to the sport in 2015, rowing masters at Vesper Boat Club. Since then, she has been a 14-time masters national champion and she and her doubles partner, Shannon Kaplan, have never lost a race. She coached masters women at Newport Aquatic Center in California for three years and is currently rowing out of Western Reserve Rowing Association in Cleveland. Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www.patreon.com/hearhersports Find all episodes hearhersports.com Find Tory on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mytrailsaremany/

Cynthia Appiah was a standout shot put and hammer throw athlete at York University. In the summer of 2011 she discovered bobsleigh at a testing camp at her university. She enjoyed a standout rookie season on the World Cup, where she pushed both two-time Olympic champion, Kaillie Humphries, to a gold and bronze medal and rookie pilot Alysia Rissling to her first ever World Cup bronze medal. After being an alternate at the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018, she decided to switch positions in the sled into the driver’s seat and is now one of Canada’s top pilots. In December 2021, she won her first medal at a World Cup event, a silver medal in Altenberg, Germany. That followed a bronze medal in an Olympic test event in October on the same track that will be the site of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Cynthia set a new Ice House start record from the pilot bar in 2019 at 5.41. She was recognized by her peers at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton with the L. Lamont Gordon Award in 2019. Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www

Helen Wyman is 10x British Cyclocross Champion, 2x European Champion, and World Championship bronze medalist. In addition to racing, Helen has worked for years to make progress in the sport towards equality for female riders. This included four years on the UCI Cyclocross Commission and establishing Helen 100 in 2018 to provide opportunities to women in cyclocross. She’s been an expert commentator for Red Bull coverage of cyclocross. Helen retired from racing in 2018. Helen also offers a preview to the Cyclocross World Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Mary Wittenberg is president of League One Volleyball (or LOV), a new, first-of-its-kind volleyball community with a network of junior clubs across the country and a developing pro women’s volleyball league. At Canisius College she was a coxswain for the men’s rowing team and an avid runner. She earned a law degree from Notre Dame University Law School, where she trained with the men’s undergrad cross-country team because there was no women’s team. In 1987, she won the Marine Corps Marathon in a time of 2:44:34 qualifying her for the 1988 Olympic marathon trials. After working at a law firm for more than a decade, she joined New York Road Runners. In 2005, she was named President and CEO, and Race Director of the New York City Marathon, making her the first female race director of a World Marathon Majors race, and the first female leader of the world’s premier road running organization. She is also former CEO of Virgin Sport and former president of EF Education First Pro Cycling Team.

Nikaeda Griffie started running in high school as a way to socialize and continued cross country and track in college for gym credit and to stay in shape. Nikaeda returned to running in 2007 when a coworker invited her to participate on a marathon relay team. From there she went on to participate in one event each month usually between a 5k and 10k distance. A year later she ran her first half marathon and then her first marathon a few weeks later. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic she had been training for her dream race, the Selma to Montgomery Relay where she would run the route Civil Rights leaders traveled on foot for voting rights. The race was cancelled the week before it was to take place in March 2020 but Nikaeda ran the race virtually. Following this accomplishment, her coach encouraged her to train for Indiana Trail 100 endurance race. After 8 months of training, Nikaeda earned her 100 mile buckle in October 2021.  She now runs for stress relief as much as fitness and prides herself in being an averag

Starla Garcia is a registered dietician, Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier, and founder of The Healthy Shine, a sport nutrition and coaching consulting practice in Houston Texas. Starla was a D1 track and field and cross-country runner at the University of Houston. There, she was diagnosed with an eating disorder.  Thanks to care and support of some teammates and a coach she faced that and with guidance from a dietician, she recovered and regained confidence in her body. Her experiences now inform her work with other athletes.

Paige Alms is a 2x Big Wave World Champion Surfer, one of Maui’s token female big wave surfers, an active water enthusiast, and foil frother. Born on the island of Victoria B.C. Canada, Paige relocated to Maui when she was nine after traveling the entire breadth of Australia in a van with her mom. In 2020 Paige was named the women’s winner of the Red Bull Big Wave Awards Biggest Paddle for a Dec. 12 ride at the world-famous Jaws, on a wave measuring 36 feet on the wave’s face. And just in late October it was announced that she won The Biggest Paddle Award again for a ride at Todos Santos, Mexico on January 11, 2021. Paige is on the forefront of women in big surf and has long fought for equal representation in her sport. 

Stephanie Scheirlynck is a certified dietitian and nutritionist specializing in sports nutrition. Over the past 15 years Stephanie has worked with professional athletes across a variety of sports including Olympic gold medalists Greg Van Avermaet (cycling) and Nafi Thiam (track and field), Team Belgium (BOIC), RSC Anderlecht (soccer), and UCI World Tour road cycling team Trek-Segafredo. Stephanie holds a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition Sciences a master’s degree in Sports Nutrition. She is also the author of five books.

22-year old rookie race car driver Toni Brideinger is the all-time winningest female in US Auto Club history with 19 wins. Like all race car drivers, Toni has sponsors. Hers include fashion and makeup brands. And she recently signed with Triller, a social media platform, so will be racing their #25 Triller Toyota Camry after recently switching to Venturini Motorsports, a Toyota Racing Development team, for the remainder of the 2021 season. Toni is one of only a handful of female drivers. In February 2021, when she raced in the ARCA-MENARD Series at the Daytona International Speedway, finishing in 18th place out of 33 she made history as NASCAR’s first Arab-American female driver.

Morgan Tuck returned to the Connecticut Sun as the Director of Franchise Development after retiring as a WNBA player in March 2021.   Morgan, a forward, was drafted by Connecticut in 2016 as the third overall pick. She spent four seasons with the Sun until 2020 when she was traded to Seattle. She concluded her WNBA career with 642 points, 273 rebounds and 97 assists. In 2019, she helped the Sun force a five-game series against Washington in the finals and in 2020 she won the championship with the Seattle Storm. Prior to her time in the league, Morgan helped lead UConn women’s basketball to four consecutive national championships. In her senior year she earned WBCA All-American and AP Second Team All-America honors.

Special bonus introduction to the Keeping Track podcast featuring American track and field star Dililah Muhammad who specializes in the 400 meter hurdles.  Keeping Track is co-hosted by Molly Huddle, Alysia Montano, & Roisin McGettigan Dumas. The three hosts gather together to talk sports and interview other outstanding women in sport. Because of their background they focus on women from the running and track and field worlds but don’t stop there. They’ve talked to coaches, leaders in the running industry, business owners in the sport and of course athletes. Like all the podcasts I love, they offer a platform for women to share their stories more widely.

Special bonus introduction to the Strides Forward Podcast featuring South African long distance runner Ann Ashworth. This episode follows Ann’s journey of discovering competitive running in her youth all the way through to seizing her moment at Comrades in 2018. Ann’s story is one of hard work and dedication, overcoming and never ever letting up. Strides Forward is hosted by long distance runner and storyteller dedicated to increasing the visibility of women athletes. Strides Forward is made for runners and non-runners alike. They believe that everyone should feel welcome at the start line, the group run, the trail adventure, the road workout, the track session, and the post-race BBQ.

Aifric Keogh started rowing in 2006 and has been a member of the High-Performance team for several years. Aifric studied Food Microbiology in UCC and is a member of UCC Rowing Club. Aifric’s highlights include winning the Junior 8s at the Irish Rowing Championships in 2008 and beating two-time World Champion, Sanita Puspure, in a 30-minute erg test. In 2020, Aifric won Bronze at the European Rowing Championships in Poznan, competing in the Women’s Four and went on to win Silver at the 2021 European Rowing Championships in Varese. Aifric was part of the crew that qualified the Women’s Four at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne. Aifric’s hometown is Na Forbacha, Galway. She just won a bronze medal in the Women’s Four at the Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics.