188. Legacy of Courage: Celebrating Fearless Women of the 2024 Olympics

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to episode 188, which is a girl-taked lead sound bite, which is a shorter episode that may be a bit more about a topic we've covered or quick inspiration

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: like our episode today. And I'm your host, Yolanda Canny. We've been covering stories about fearless leadership for August and this is our final part of that series.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I know you probably all follow the Olympics in Paris this year and heard a lot about the women who stood out with amazing stories like

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Katie and Simone and Shikari, but I'm thinking there's some other stories you may not have heard about. And that's my hope for today.

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I hope you hear something you didn't know and feel inspired by these fearless women. And as always, all my sources are in the show notes.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Enjoy the lesson and there you go! Let's start with the fact that Paris summer games had gender parity

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: with half of the over 10,000 athletes participating were women. The growth in women participating in the Olympics has been a slow and steady build.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00]: In 1964, women accounted for only 13 percent of athletes. The participation grew to 23 percent

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: in 1984, 44 percent in 2012 and 48 percent in 2020. By comparison, in 1900 when Paris first hosted the games,

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: there were only 22 female athletes which is about 2.2 percent and they participated in just two sports

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00]: tennis and golf. In Paris, there were 329 medal events, 152 of them were for women and 20 mixed gender.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: In addition, 28 of the 32 sports were fully gender-balanced.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Diverning body IOC asked that for the opening ceremonies, each nation have at least one female

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and one male athlete as the flag bearer. The Olympics were also improving the coverage of female events.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: The IOC scheduled equal prime time coverage of men and women events. Moreover,

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_00]: in a first, the final Olympic event was the woman's marathon instead of the traditional men's

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: marathon. In a written statement, an IOC member noted, quote, the Olympic games are a rare

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: occasion when female athletes can make bad lines as much as their male counterparts.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: We know that there are prime global broadcasting times at each addition of the Olympic Games.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: We have adjusted the schedule accordingly to ensure that a gender-balanced number of

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: take place during those times. There were over 12 million viewers watching women's gymnastics

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and to give you some reference, that's more viewers than every game of the 2024 NBA

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00]: finals, every game of the 2023 MLB World Series or the Stanley Cup finals.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Interestingly though, the very first edition of the Olympic Games was held in Athens

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: in Greece back in 1896 and the tradition of giving away medals to the top competitors

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_00]: on the weekend in 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri. In the U.S., and for the first two

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: editions in 1986 and 1900, participation in these games was literally a prize in itself.

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And you can ask any athlete even now and they will tell you that even though the top performers

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00]: walk away with the medals in each discipline, it's the chance to become an Olympian

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: that is the most cherished dream. A medal of course is just the cherry on the cake.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: The Olympic Games, both summer and winter, always throw up numerous inspirational stories

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: and the ongoing Paris Games were no different. Here are some great stories of athletes

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: fueled by the passion of competing on the biggest sporting stage of the mall.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Whose stories and achievements have become global talking points? The first is Yuligol,

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Ramazonova, an aser by John Archer. This 34-year-old who has been termed about us by

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: social media users, went to the Paris Olympic Six and a half months pregnant.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Yuligol ranked 185 in the world, pulled off a huge upset at the games when she humbled a

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: higher ranked Chinese Archer in the first elimination round. The match turned out to be an absolute

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: edge of the seat thriller, without the archers giving it their all. As they tied each other

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: five to five, sending the match into a single arrow shoot off. And this is where,

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: pregnant at all, she kept her nerve. She shot a 10 to notch up a memorable victory.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Ramazonova was quoted as saying, quote, I felt my baby kick before I shot this last arrow

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and then I shot a 10. Though she was eliminated in the next round, she left an indelible

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_00]: impression on the 2024 games. She was also quoted to have said, quote, during training for the Olympics,

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't feel uncomfortable with my pregnancy. Instead, I felt that I was not fighting alone,

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: but fighting together with my baby. Yuligol was not the only pregnant woman competing.

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_00]: There was not a half as a 26-year-old Egyptian fencer who was seven months pregnant.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about you, but fencer looks really grueling. It requires incredible agility,

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: precision, and stamina. All while wearing a full body suit and bency mask.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: No wonder no one caught on to the fact that she was pregnant. And she beat U.S.A.'s Elizabeth,

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Tartakovsky, a former N.C. two-way champion, 15 to three in the first round.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It was after this match that Hathez took to social media to announce to the world seven months

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: pregnant Olympian. But it appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It was me, my competitor, and my yet to come to our world, little baby.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: My baby and I had our fair share of challenges, be it both physical and emotional.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: The roller coaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: of life and sports was nothing short of stranyous. However worth it. I'm writing this post to say

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: that pride fills my being for securing my place in the round of 16. This specific Olympics

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: was different. Three times Olympian, but this time carrying a little Olympian one.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Hathez eventually lost to South Korea. Just imagine the grit and determination it takes to compete

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: at the highest level. Mopping seven months pregnant. Let's hear it for the whole romance that

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: make us invincible or feel that we're invincible, but then we hit the ninth month.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I know for me it was like hitting a brick wall and I couldn't move. Next there's the 58-year-old

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_00]: table tennis grandma. Xi Jinping's young, the Chilean table tennis player of Chinese origin.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Since the 1970s since the 1970s Xi Jinping has had a passion that saw her make it to the Paris

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Olympics at the right old age of 58. She was born in China in 1966. Her mother was a table tennis

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_00]: coach and she picked up the paddle really young and turned professional at the age of 12.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine how difficult it must have been to be a table tennis player in China?

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Hands down. The most successful table tennis nation ever. Consider this. From the time

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: table tennis was introduced as an Olympics sport in the 1988 edition in Seoul. China has won a

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: mind-boggling 60 table tennis medals including 32 gold, 20 silver and eight bronze medals.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: In the nine editions of the Olympics, from 1988 to 2020, China has been the best performing

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_00]: nation throughout. So when Jong was called up to the Chinese table tennis team at the age of 16,

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_00]: it was no mean feat but then came the downturn. According to a CNN report,

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_00]: the two-color rule in 1986, two years before the 1988 Olympics Games,

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_00]: meant that paddlers had to use paddles that had two different colors on the two sides of the

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_00]: paddle. And this saw Jong's game affected because opponents could now read her game better

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_00]: and she could no longer confuse them by turning the paddle continuously in her hand.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: She had to eventually leave the Chinese team. In 1989, she received an invitation

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_00]: to coach school kids in Chile. Jong packed her bags and left. She stayed in Chile and made

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: only sporadic comebacks to competitive table tennis. Once in 2003 and then again during the

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_00]: COVID pandemic, when she began winning regional tournaments playing mostly against men.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The big crowning glory came in 2023 when she was picked to be part of the Chilean women's

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: team for the Pan-American Games in Santiago. She begged the bronze in the team event

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: along with Daniela Ortega and Palina Vega. CNN reported that Chileans gave her the nickname Tia

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Tanya. According to AP report, one young fan was quoted as saying that he had gone to the competition,

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_00]: just to watch the table tennis drama in action. Jong is not actually a grandmother,

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: but she very quickly became an iconic figure in Chile. Teperas 2024,

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and Jong's lifelong dream had become an Olympian finally came true. Her 92 year old father stayed

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_00]: up to 5am in China to watch his daughter realize her dream. An emotional Jong toat CNN quote,

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: My dad was able to see his daughter qualify for the Olympics. He used to take me to training

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_00]: and to matches when I was a girl, and now at 57, I made it. I made it. Though she lost in the

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_00]: preliminary rounds in Paris to Lebanon, Jong is one athlete that was headlined and she was

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: headlined for the right reasons. For showing the world that being an Olympian is what drives

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_00]: all athletes regardless of eventual glory and that none of us must ever forget just how big an

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_00]: achievement or how cherished a dream Olympic participation in itself truly is. And there's

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_00]: she is the youngest of the world class programs squad at 19. She started archery when she was nine

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_00]: after watching the Disney movie Brave and she used to shoot arrows from the back of a horse.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_00]: She said this quote, When I was about eight or nine, I was doing horse riding and thought it

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_00]: would be cool to do archery on the back of horse. Then I had to stop horse riding because it was too

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_00]: expensive. So I got into archery instead. It was love, ever sight. With two gold medals at the

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_00]: 2023 European Games in Poland, heely story and age are inspiring enough but it doesn't end there.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: She says archery helped her through the anxiety she suffered during the COVID lockdown.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_00]: She was seated at 52 and was eliminated from competition early on in Paris,

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_00]: but this is what resilience looks like. She said this quote, In the next few years,

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm definitely going to work on a lot of mental stuff,

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: which was then going along with the technical stuff I'm working on.

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I've already said to the psychologist,

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to let the next games be like these games.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do everything I can, she added. And there's Olympian and 11-time

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_00]: analyst proud mother of two Allison Felix, who made the first ever Olympic village

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00]: baby nursery happen for Adelaide parents through a partnership with Ampers.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Felix said this quote,

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It's here so that mothers and families feel supported having some normalcy is great

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_00]: just to have an actual space dedicated for this.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_00]: It's meant to feel like home. Allison won the bronze medal in the women's

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: 400 meter. The nursery imparises far from Felix's first four-ray

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_00]: into activism, she created a child care fund in 2021 to support mom athletes and also recently

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: received a $20 million grant from the Melinda French Gates Foundation to support Black

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_00]: maternal health. She maintains that her mission is to make sure initiatives such as her fund and

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_00]: the Olympic nursery become societal staples. She said quote,

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a ship and culture. It's saying that motherhood isn't the end. If you choose to be a mother

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_00]: in the midst of your career, you can still go and have incredible performances.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Before I enter episode today, I'd like to remind you about our card and gift shop,

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: which has been themed to go along with our podcast episodes. Be sure to check out girl

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: take the lead pod.com slash shop because there's a card there I think would go very well

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_00]: with this episode and the inspiration from it. It reads, cheers! You made it look so easy.

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you know someone who inspires you like these Olympic athletes.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_00]: In closing, I'd like to read you a post that quote, shower arguments with Emily Solberg

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_00]: made on August 3rd. Emily by the way has 194,000 followers on Facebook.

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And this is what she said. When it comes to the female athletes competing right now in the

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_00]: 2024 in the big games, want to know what I care less about? What the hair looks like? What their

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_00]: BMI is. What they wear when they compete. If they have to make up on how long their nails are,

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_00]: how masculine or feminine they appear to be. These are the most boring, uninteresting parts

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_00]: about all of them. Talk to me instead about how the biker who won gold in BMX did so wearing her

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_00]: brothers number on her jersey and how she broke down in tears afterward because he was there

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_00]: cheering her on despite suffering a horrible crash in 2020 that left him in a coma for two months

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and despite her own white belt at the Tokyo Games that crashed her spirit.

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Talk to me instead about how the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: became only the second swimmer ever to win the same race in four straight Olympic games.

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_00]: She did it the first time at 15 years old. No big deal. Talk to me instead about how the gymnast

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_00]: who struggled with her mental health to fight all the couch potato internet haters.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Thuckest all her energy on getting better and thought her way to an epic comeback

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_00]: to become the most decorated American Olympic gymnast. Talk to me instead about how the

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_00]: rugby player preaches body positivity and acceptance helped the women's 7th team make history

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_00]: by earning its first ever mental and the first mental for US rugby period since 1924.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Talk to me instead about how the roger who won gold secretly wrote about her dreams and her

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_00]: diary at the age of 14 only to have her note and it backed her 7 years later by her dying father.

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_00]: As a reminder that even when she didn't believe in herself he always did. Talk to me instead

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_00]: about how the judo champion who has been a travelizer for women's rights and sports worked

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_00]: tirelessly to ensure that breastfeeding athletes received hotel rooms during the games.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Brought her daughter with her detraining and held her a loft after winning the bronze.

[00:21:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Talk to me instead about how a 55 year old shooter is the first female athlete to compete in

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_00]: 10 Olympic games setting a record for longevity in her sport. Talk to me instead about how this

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_00]: is the first Olympics in history where we have true gender parity. 5,250 male athletes competing

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_00]: and 5,250 female athletes competing and I really couldn't care less about what they look like

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_00]: how much they weigh if they choose to wear leggings instead of bikini bottoms. What their

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_00]: old they are or if they don't fit the mold of what society says they should.

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening today and here's what that card look like. I'm not sure that I

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_00]: showed and I know some of you were watching this one. Anyway, this is what that card looks like.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_00]: We sure hope you enjoyed this episode and if you did please leave a comment wherever you

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[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_00]: girl take the lead. We also have a YouTube channel where your subscription would be appreciated.

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Once you're on YouTube search at girl take the lead and we're on YouTube music where you can

[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_00]: see the video of this episode. Here are three takeaways from today. 1, the 2024 Olympics

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_00]: truly demonstrated gender parity. 2, the original spirit of the Olympics was alive and well

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_00]: as athletes show their passion and care for each other in Paris. 3,

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_00]: being a mother doesn't need to mean career death as an athlete. Our theme for September will be

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_00]: the end of the year. Both from a spiritual and functional perspective will have all kinds

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_00]: of episodes with special guests and books to help us explore this topic. Our very next episode will

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_00]: cover the book abundance, the inner path to wealth by Deepak Chopra M.D. So please join us again

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: and talk to you soon. Bye!