Olympian, designer, entrepreneur, and new mom—Nina Ligon wears many hats, and she’s learned not to box herself into just one. As Thailand’s first female equestrian to compete at the Olympics, Nina broke barriers at the London 2012 Games in the sport of Three-Day Eventing. But when the competition ended, her real journey was just beginning. “I didn’t want to define myself as the horse girl anymore,” she shares. “I wanted to discover who I was beyond that.”

In this deeply personal conversation, Nina opens up about what came next—from stepping away from sport cold turkey to diving into Stanford’s design labs, launching a career at Headspace, earning her MBA from Yale, and ultimately founding her own company, Generation Sport. Rooted in her own frustrations as a young athlete who never felt like uniforms were made for her body, Nina is now on a mission to build better sportswear with and for girls and women. “Young female athletes are under so much scrutiny in a way they’ve never been before. We’re here to support them.”

She shares the challenges of letting go of an identity that once defined her, the emotional pull of starting over, and what it means to lead as a new mom and business owner. “Being an entrepreneur gives me the flexibility to spend time with my son—but it also means the pressure stops with me.”

Nina’s message to fellow athletes in transition? “Let go of the need to be great right away. Be a beginner again. Be curious. That’s where everything starts.”

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Flame Bearers is a multimedia movement, illuminating the unsung stories of elite women athletes from around the world. We tell stories via podcast, video and live events and have worked with over 270 Olympians and Paralympians from 55 countries and counting.

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