Empowerment & Courage

For today's episode, we were lucky to get the chance to speak with Arianna Criscione. She’s an American-Italian football player, currently playing for PSG in France. She’s a former member of the Italian National Team and has previously won three Italian titles, one Italian Cup, and three super cups with Torres Calcio. Arianna is currently also working as the Women’s Sponsorship Manager at PSG. We speak about her taking the step of moving to Europe to play professional football after finishing her college soccer career in the US. She loves to travel and talks about the many places that football has taken her and some of her best experiences abroad, discovering new cities during local festivities. Looking back at her career, Arianna shares what her definition of success is and how her approach to what it means to be successful has changed over the years. She’s a big advocate for giving girls opportunities to play sports and hopes to show other girls that you can work within the sports industry even if you don’t aspire to be a professional athlete.

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For today's episode, we had the honor of speaking with Katie Hoff. She’s a former professional American swimmer, an 8x World Champion, a 2x Olympian and a 3x Olympic Medalist. Today, Katie is a bestselling author, a keynote speaker and co-founder of the company Synergy Dryland. We speak about her relentless attitude of wanting to become the best from a very young age and what it was like for her to compete at the Olympics when she was only 15 years old. She also shares how to deal with expectations and what she has learnt from managing the disappointment of realizing that not all things turn out the way you want them to. Retiring from professional swimming in 2015, Katie explains what it was like having to give up her athletic career because of a health condition, and how she found her identity outside of the pool after that. Today, Katie shares her experiences and learnings with others and released her bestselling book ‘’BluePrint - An Olympian's Story of Striving, Adapting and Embracing the Suck’’ in 2020.

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For today’s episode, we had the great honor of speaking with Cherelle Thompson. She’s a professional swimmer from Trinidad & Tobago, currently preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. Cherelle was a 2x NCAA All-American at the University of Tennessee and has broken both national Trinidad & Tobago records and regional Caribbean records. We speak about her childhood dream of competing at the Olympic Games and the crazy journey that would eventually lead to her qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. She also talks about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, especially when you face adversity and need encouragement to keep going and stay positive. Knowing what a major impact sports can have on one's life, Cherelle is today a mentor for young aspiring athletes worldwide and started her own infant swim school back home in Trinidad, called Aquasense. She’s very passionate about giving back to the younger generation and wants to inspire them the same way that others inspired her when she was a kid.

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In today’s episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Vincent Bezecourt. He’s a French football player, a 2013 World University Games Champion with the French Team and is currently playing for FC Alashkert in Armenia. Vincent has previously also played for New York Red Bulls in the MLS and for FC Miami in the USL. Vincent speaks about his time playing college soccer in the US and how he ended up signing his first pro contract with New York Red Bulls after thinking he was already done with football. He also talks about the mental hardships that accompany physical injuries, and what he has learnt from overcoming two injuries during his pro career. Having lived abroad for many years now, Vincent also shares how important his international experiences have been for his personal growth and how he’s gone from a shy person to now being someone who loves traveling, discovering other cultures and making connections worldwide.

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For today's episode we had the big pleasure of speaking with Ana Gros. She’s a professional handball player and the captain of the Slovenian National Team, currently playing in Brest in France. At the club level she’s won the Championship and Cup in basically every country she’s played in, she’s been named the French Championship Right Back six times in a row and the All-Star Right Back of the EHF Champions League in 2018. We speak about her many years living abroad and how these experiences have impacted her, and also contributed to her now speaking six different languages. Ana also talks about the many lessons that handball has taught her and how it makes her happy to be able to give back and be a role model to the younger generation today. Having considered giving up on handball at one point in her career, Ana shares how she rediscovered her love for the sport again and she is now working harder than ever to realize a lifelong dream of hers: winning the Champions League.

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For today’s episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Molly Carlson. She’s a professional high diver and member of Team Canada, and a former college diver at Florida State University - where she became a 5x NCAA All-American. We speak about her time as a diver and how she ended up transitioning into high diving after graduating from college. With only about 20 girls worldwide being professional high divers, Molly shares her views of fear and what it’s like to deal with the mental side of such an extreme sport. Having previously battled mental health issues and body dysmorphia, Molly speaks about how those experiences contributed to her creating and growing the #BraveGang community - a community of over 2.3 million followers on TikTok that both inspires and celebrates bravery at every level.

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For today's episode, we were fortunate to get to speak with Nicole Heavirland. She’s a professional rugby player and part of the US National Rugby Sevens team. We speak about how Nicole found her way to rugby in high school and how rugby sevens is a sport that requires some serious physical, and mental strength. She also shares her thoughts on the nutrition aspect of being a professional athlete and how she has found a balance between eating for performance and eating for pleasure, over the years. Playing sports has taught Nicole the values and mentality of hard work and she wants to show others that it’s never impossible to achieve what you want, as long as you stop making excuses and put in the work.

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For today's episode, we had the great pleasure of speaking with the amazing Caroline Burckle. She’s a former professional swimmer and a 2x NCAA champion, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics representing the United States. Caroline is also an artist and co-founder of RISE Athletes. We speak about her background in swimming, as well as the difficulties that followed her time as a collegiate and professional swimmer. She shares what it was like for her to heal and find herself after those years and how this has led her to where she is today. Caroline is a big believer in continuous growth and self-development, and while she is still trying and learning new things herself, she also keeps growing RISE Athletes and the important work that they do - acting as a support system for young athletes worldwide.

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For today’s episode, we got the chance to speaks with Grant Wiggins. He’s a professional triathlete and a former college runner at Villanova University, working towards representing the United States at World Championships and at the 2024 Olympic Games. We talk about how he came up short of his own expectations during his college career and how this period of his life was a major learning experience. He also shares his journey to discovering triathlon, how he uses visualization as part of his mental preparation, and his best advice to overcome adversity. Ultimately, Grant wants to show others that you don’t have to be an NCAA Champion or college star to be an elite athlete - even if you’re not, you can still move on to become a professional athlete and compete at a very high level.

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For today’s episode, we had the honor of speaking with Kaleigh Gilchrist. She’s a professional water polo player and a professional surfer. In college she became a National Champion in both sports and is now also an Olympic Champion and a 2x World Champion in water polo together with Team USA. We speak about how Kaleigh developed a love for sports at a young age and her journey to becoming a professional athlete in not only one, but two sports. She also shares some of the tough things she’s had to deal with after a terrible accident at the World Championships in South Korea in 2019, and how this experience has impacted her. Kaleigh wants to show people the fun side of sports and feels encouraged to pass on the legacies of her three biggest inspirations and mentors in sport: her dad, her old coach Barnett and Kobe Bryant.

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