Welcome to Strong Girl Talk, where we dive into the latest in sports science, performance, and well-being—all with a focus on women and girls in sport. Each episode, we take a deep dive into the research, the challenges, and the opportunities that impact female athletes. This week Sasha chatted with Katie Rainsberger. Before we dive into the conversation with Katie, Molly and Sasha talk about all things sports updates, including Sea Otter, Paris Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, and the relaunch of The Girls Forward Foundation.

Molly was down at The Sea Otter Classic, “the bike family reunion” “where the world comes together to celebrate cycling. We are sending all our best to Haley Batten, LifeTime Series Sea Otter Gravel Winner and Paris 2024 Silver Medalist in the Cross-Country Olympic Distance, who is racing close to home while her mother undergoes cancer treatment.

Sasha had the opportunity to attend the rebrand of Fast and Female, launching as The Girls Forward Foundation (your new GFF!). Watching Gaby and the team was awesome and we are really excited to see the next chapter of this incredible organization. Sasha also announced on her instagram that Girls Forward is an official charity partner of the Yorkville Run, a run that raised almost $1million for charities in 2024. Sasha also sits on the advisory board for the Yorkville Run.

Sports Highlights:

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (PFP) from Team Visma | Lease a Bike won Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. This was PFP’s first time racing the event and She was out racing for her teammate, Marianne Vos, but with 23k to go PFP saw an opportunity and rode away from the field. In PFP’s post race interview she highlighted her teammates and on Instagram there are several great posts of PFP with her teammate. Because sports are so much better when they are fueled by love and mutual support instead of toxicity and jealousy.

In the mountain bike, we’ll start by sharing that Haley Batten is delaying her mountain bike start this year because of a family health diagnosis. She’s racing closer to home and won the LifeTime series Sea Otter Classic 90 mile gravel race; she also won the 70 mile mountain bike race becoming the first athlete to win both! On Friday, Evie Richards won the short track (XCC) breaking PFP’s short track record for most wins! Jenny Rissveds, 2016 Olympic Mountain Bike Champion, won Saturday’s Olympic-Distance (XCO). Samara Maxwell is the overall XCO series leader finishing 2nd to Rissveds; in her post-race interview she normalized having a period and racing.

Sasha’s former Oiselle Teammate, now ASICS athlete, 2 time Olympic Champion Valarie Allman broke the American and North American Discus record. Track gets so much coverage so let’s hear it for the field women! We heard a rumour that ATHLOS is considering adding field events this year and Grand Slam has said no! (Thanks Kara and Des for that nugget).

Molly mentions that Hilary Knight broke the assists record at the World Ice Hockey Championships. It’s not just the Hilary has the assists record, the US Captain also has the goals scored, and points record! Also listen for Molly celebrate the assists record but not know the hockey terminology - clearly Sasha’s nerdism extends beyond math and science!

LA28 announced this week that for the first time there will be more spots available for women to compete compared to men (the number of female athletes is 5,333 and the number of male athletes 5,167). Keeping it positive this week, but Sasha and Molly will dig into some of the challenges next week, stay tuned! (For instance, while there may be more spots for women to compete, there are still more medals available for the men! How rude?!)

Finally you’ll get to Sasha’s first solo interview with Katie Rainsberger. Katie shared her journey from winning the first NCAA triple crown at the University of Oregon to overcoming a 10-cm tumor and pursuing a doctorate in Applied Physiology. She discussed her research on relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S), highlighting the impact of training volume and intensity on female athletes' performance and recovery. Katie's study compared lactate threshold and critical speed tests in male and female athletes, finding significant differences. She also emphasized the need for better funding and education on female athletes' menstrual cycles and energy balance to optimize performance and long-term health.

You can learn more about the work Katie is doing at her Voice in Sport research page. You can also support her work by donating to her research (because yes, female sport science is still drastically underfunded and Katie has to raise money for her research). On behalf of Strong Girl Talk, Sasha and Molly made a donation to Katie’s work. This matters because less than 6% of research is done on female athletes!

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Remember you can follow Molly and Sasha on Social Media including:

Molly - @mollyjhurford @stronggirlpublishing

Sasha - @SGollishRuns @Yellow_Running_Shoes

Don’t forget to sign up for Shred Girls Weekend, May 31 and June 1 at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre, which is Shred Girls Book 4 Launch at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. Both Sasha & Molly will be there, alongside other Strong Girl Publishing authors.

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