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With biathlete Deedra Irwin, host Elizabeth Emery talks about how hard it is to perform perfectly on a specific day, how she thinks about balance in a bunch of scenarios, and how she found financial and mental security for greater performance. Deedra has fascinating insight into being a returning Olympian and everything that goes into making an Olympic team. 

Deedra grew up running competitively in Northeast Wisconsin. She started skiing at 16 years old to help stay in shape for running during the winter. She decided to be a 3 sport athlete at Michigan Tech and while there competed in 2 Nordic Skiing NCAA championships and U23 Worlds for Team USA in 2015. She then skied professional with the Sun Valley Ski Education Gold Team for 2 seasons after college. In 2017 she attended a US Biathlon Talent ID camp and decided to take a chance on Biathlon. Short after she made the X-team and joined the Vermont National Guard in 2019. Deedra qualified for her first Olympics in 2022. In her debut race at the 2022 Beijing Olympics she raced to a historic 7th place in the Women's 15km Individual shooting 19/20. This is the best Olympic finish in US Biathlon history. Since the 2022 Olympics Deedra has been the top female athlete for the US Biathlon Team and in the 24/25 season was ranked top-40 in the IBU World Cup standings. She is now preparing to race in her second Olympics in Milano-Cortina 2026. 

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Marta Colosio is an Italian postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research focuses on neuromuscular function and performance fatigability in young and older adults, as well as in individuals with metabolic disease. She studies how exercise, training interventions, and nutritional supplementation influence muscle health, and how sex differences shape these responses. We talk about what is the best behavior to improve the way that we live in old age. 

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Lidia Cusack is an emerging professional cyclist who has made her mark in both road racing and cyclocross. She began racing at a young age on her local club team in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and quickly moved into the national and international scene.

After graduating high school, Lidia took the bold step to move to Europe to pursue her cycling dreams.  Her dedication paid off with impressive results in UCI events, World Cup races, and World Championships. Notable achievements during her junior years include victory at the prestigious Druivenkoers - Overijse road race and a commanding cyclocross World Cup win in Dublin.  Her 5th place finish at the 2024 Cyclocross World Championship further solidified her status as a rising star in the sport.  

As a U23 rider, Lidia is staying patient while challenging herself among elite competitors - knowing that results will come with experience. In her future Lidia dreams of having a long and healthy career, winning a monument on the road, and winning an elite cyclocross world title. She also aspires to be a role model for future American female cyclists, showing them that it is possible to succeed at the highest levels despite barriers that come with being an American in a very Euro-focussed sport.
 Aside from racing her bicycle, Lidia loves spending time outdoors - mountain biking, backpacking, skiing, sailing, and anything else that brings her to nature.

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Betty Kellenberger and her five sisters grew up in a farming family. She attended Central Michigan University and then taught for 40+ years in Carson City, Michigan. Her summer breaks were filled with traveling, often by bicycle. She pedaled across every state in the US and every province in Canada. Betty has also ridden in China, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. She’s been on a couple of archeological digs, studied at numerous universities, lead a Boy Scout troop to earn their cycling badge, served four terms in public office before the desire to travel demanded her attention. 

In September of 2025, at 80 years old, Betty became the oldest woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.

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Vanessa Bonebrake was born in France and started swimming on a team when she was six years old. When she was ten, her family moved to Costa Rica, where she joined one of the country’s top swim teams and competed at the national level until she was 18. 

After taking a short break to focus on school, she rediscovered her love for swimming while earning a master’s degree. That’s when her lifelong connection to the water truly came back to life. Not long after that Vanessa found open water swimming and it completely changed her path. She’s completed several endurance swim races, including the True Width of Lake Tahoe, Swim Around Key West, and Escape from Alcatraz, among many  others.

Vanessa is also a proud Sea Dreamers Ambassador, where she helps inspire more women to dive into open water swimming and raise awareness for ocean conservation.

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For more information about Sea Dreams go to https://seadreamers.org/

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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. 

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