Hendrika

Get

Sign

Find

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace Brown OAM is Australia’s most successful female road cyclist. She recently retired from the sport as Olympic and World Champion in the Individual time trial. In 2024, she reached the pinnacle of her career, winning Olympic gold in Paris, becoming World Champion in the Individual Time Trial, and claiming victory in the prestigious Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Brown is now part of the SBS commentary and podcast team, and president of the board of The Cyclists' Alliance.

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletter

Find out more about The Cyclists’ Alliance at https://cyclistsalliance.org/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Emalee Nelson Stone and host Elizabeth Emery discuss the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens' 131-game winning streak during the 1950s and how that impacted women’s basketball today. 

Dr. Emalee Nelson Stone is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of sport, history, society, and culture. Specifically, her research examines the sporting experiences of American women. She has presented her work at numerous national and international academic conferences. Her writing can be found in various academic journals, including The International Journal of Sport History, Sport History Review, the Journal of Sport History, and The Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics. Recently, she served as a speaker and facilitator at the U.S. Soccer Federation's SheChampions Summit during the 2024 SheBelieves Cup. Currently, she is engaged in two book projects through Texas Tech University Press. The first project explores the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens' 131-game winning streak during the 1950s. The second project investigates the landscape of Texas collegiate women's sports during the 1970s within the context of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). She received a BA in Geography and MA in History from Texas Tech University, an MA in American Studies from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and a PhD in Kinesiology from The University of Texas at Austin.

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletterFollow Emalee on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/emaleenelsonstone/

Find out more about Emalee at https://education.utexas.edu/faculty/emalee_nelson/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Georgia Hall won the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2018, just five years after triumphing in the R&A Women’s Amateur Championship. Georgia’s victory wasn’t just special because it was her first major, but also because her dad Wayne caddied for her that week. A superb final round of five-under-par featured numerous highlights, and Georgia was the first British winner of the event since Catriona Matthew clinched the title at the same venue in 2009.

Georgia, who began playing golf aged seven after her dad took her to a driving range near their Bournemouth home, doubled her LPGA win tally when she triumphed in the Cambio Portland Classic in 2020. The three-time European Solheim Cup player is a two-time Ladies European Tour order of merit winner, in 2017 and 2018. Georgia lost to Celine Boutier on the first extra hole of a play-off in the LPGA Drive On Championship in March 2023.

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletterFollow Georgia on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/georgiahall23/?hl=en

Find out more about AIG women’s open at https://www.aigwomensopen.com/royal-porthcawl-2025

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexa Brabec grew up in Steamboat Springs, CO where she trained with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. In 2020, she qualified for the US National Team for the first time. After graduating high school, Alexa moved to Lillehammer, Norway to train with the Norwegian Team as a part of a partnership between the US and Norwegian Teams. She competed in the first women's Nordic Combined World Cup in 2020 in Ramsau, Austria, the first Youth Olympic Games for women's Nordic Combined in 2020 in Laussane, Switzerland, and the first World Championships for women's Nordic Combined in 2021 in Oberstdorf, Germany. 

Some highlights of her career are winning two silver medals at the 2024 Junior World Championships in the Individual and Women's Team Event, which were the first US women's Nordic Combined medals at Junior Worlds, a 4th place finish in the 2025 Seefeld Triple World Cup, a 4th place finish at the 2025 World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, which is also the best US women's Nordic Combined finish at World Championships, and finishing the 2024/25 World Cup season ranked 9th in the world. 

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the episode host Elizabeth Emery speaks with Staci Mannella about ski racing legally blind with a guide, training for effective communication, why working with a counselor as an athlete is great idea, and why and how sport has been so important in her life, plus where it is leading her now. 

Staci Mannella is a third year Ball State University PhD. student in counseling psychology with a focus on sport and performance. She is a mental health therapist and mental performance consultant in training at SKADI Sport Psychology. Drawing from her journey as a visually impaired Paralympic skier at the Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Games, Staci brings a unique blend of firsthand experience and academic rigor to her clinical work and research. Staci's academic journey, including a Bachelor of Arts at Dartmouth College, a Master's of Science from the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, and a Masters of Arts in Counseling from Ball State University, underscores her commitment to evidence-based practice. Her ability to produce, consume, and apply sport psychology research ensures that her clients receive the most effective strategies for optimizing their performance. When she’s not supporting the performance and wellbeing of athletes, Staci enjoys staying active herself! She loves hiking, skiing, spending time with her animals, and enjoying the outdoors. 

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast
Find all episodes http://www.hearhersports.com/
Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletter
Find Staci at https://stacimannella.com/
Follow Staci on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/staciskier96
Follow Staci on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/staciskier96/
Find Sisters in Sports at https://sistersinsportsfoundation.org/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017, Megan Jastrab was an early guest on Hear Her Sports. She was 15 years old then and just, barely just, imagining her future cycling career. She is now a pro racer with Team Picnic PostNL. She’s also an Olympic medalist and three time Junior World Champion. !!!

In this episode, host Elizabeth catches up with Megan and hears about her recent experiences at La Vuelta Femenina, one of the three women’s stage races called grand tours. Megan shares her thoughts about if La Vuelta should be called a grand tour, growth of women’s cycling since she started, living in Europe, and her love of bike racing despite the rain and crashes.

Megan began riding bikes with her brother Ryan at the age of eleven in her hometown of California. Two years later she competed in her first race, and by the age of seventeen, Megan was Junior World Champion in not only the road race but both the madison and omnium on the track. Hungry for more, Megan joined the national track team and came away from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a Bronze medal in her first ever elite team pursuit, at the ripe old age of 19.
Megan earned a double degree in Exercise Science and Business graduated from Milligan University. She now races full-time, based out of Sittard in Holland.
Be sure to listen to her early episode (Ep18) because it’s still applicable to youngsters wanting to get into the sport.

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletter

Megan coaches. Learn more at https://mile2marathon-ride.com/coach/megan-jastrab/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week host Elizabeth Emery is talking to Karen Heintz, a starting point guard, with the Houston Angels of the Women’s Basketball League (WBL), which was founded in 1978. In that inaugural year of the league, the Angels won the Championship over the Iowa Cornets. 

Before playing with the Angels, Karen walked onto Texas A&M in 1974, then transferred to Baylor as a sophomore. She is still in the record books at both schools in rebounding and scoring. Karen is also one of the early female athletes to receive an athletic college scholarship. 

In the episode, Karen tells all those stories and we’ll hear what it was like to play in the WBL, Karen’s memories from those days, what she was paid, plus her thoughts on the current momentum in women’s sports. We also talk about coaching because Karen has been teaching and coaching for 47 years. She was a head coach for 34 years, winning 797 games, multiple Regional Finals, and District Championships. 

Karen still plays basketball competitively with the Connecticut Classics, an exceptional 50+ team. They regularly win National Senior Games championships. 

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletter
Follow National Senior Games at https://www.instagram.com/seniorgames1/p/DGVyITkifn0/?locale=id&img_index=1Hear Karen Heintz and Coach Knodal on KHOU television at https://www.khou.com/article/sports/houston-angels-womens-basketball-championship/285-d7d338d2-6532-41d7-9f0f-5b7cbd1cc0f4

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Francesca Clapcich was born in Trieste, Italy and now lives in Park City, Utah with her wife (former Olympic and round-the-world sailor, Sally Barkow) and daughter, Harriet. 

In our conversation, Francesca explains sailing, what it’s like to be out on the ocean with dolphins and other wildlife. Then tells tales of the physical and mental preparations for the 2028 Vendee Globe, kid sports in Italy, building a diverse team, belief in yourself, belonging, and being a mom athlete. Our conversation couldn’t have been more full and wonderful. 

Francesca has twice represented Italy at the Olympic Games, is a World Champion, European Champion, Italian Sailor of the Year. In 2023, competing with 11th Hour Racing Team, she became the first Italian to win The Ocean Race, the world’s longest and toughest team sporting event. Francesca is also the first female Italian to compete in the notoriously challenging Solitaire du Figaro, a solo multi-stage sprint around the coastline of France,. There she was presented with the Fighting Spirit award.

She then joined the Italian Air Force in their elite athlete program, where she served for nine years, finishing as a Senior Airman. 

Beyond sailing, Francesca stays active in Park City. She is a qualified ski instructor, a CrossFit and weight-lifting coach, and she volunteers as an Emergency Medical Technician in her community for youth events. Francesca sits on the board of the Park City Task Force, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in the community, building programs and events to expand the outreach of the organization, creating a safe place and access to support resources, sport and the outdoors for everyone in the region.

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/givetoHHSpodcast

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletterFind Francesca Clapcich at https://www.francescaclapcich.com/

Follow Francesca on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@FrancescaFrankieClapcich

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danette Leighton is a 30-year sports industry and corporate executive with experience serving both men’s and women’s professional and collegiate sports leagues and teams. Since March of 2022, Leighton has led the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) as CEO, joining the 51-year-old organization, founded by Billie Jean King in 1974.

Leighton was most recently chief marketing officer at the Pac-12 Conference. Prior to her nearly 12 years with the Pac-12, Leighton was with Maloof Sports & Entertainment’s NBA Sacramento Kings as vice president of marketing and brand development, as well as vice president of business operations for the WNBA Monarchs, where she led the business of the World Championship-winning WNBA franchise. She also previously worked for Sony and managed their sponsorship of the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii and was Stanford University’s executive director of the 1999 NCAA Women’s Final Four.

A graduate of the University of Arizona, she was named a Game Changer by Sports Business Journal and recognized for her innovation and excellence by Media Inc. She currently serves as a member of Women Leaders in College Sports Board of Directors.

Get involved and support the show directly at https://bit.ly/supportWsports

Find all episodes http://www.hearhersports.com/

Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletter

Follow Women’s Sports Foundation on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/womenssportsfoundation/

Find Women’s Sports Foundation at https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/

Read the Play to Lead Executive Summary at https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Play-to-Lead-Report-Executive-Summary-2024.pdf

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices