Featured

Meghan Duggan

 

  • Olympic gold medalist, 2018
  • Two-time Olympic silver medalist, 2010 & 2014
  • Two-time Clarkson Cup Champion
  • ESPN Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year, 2018
  • IIHF Women’s World Champion
  • Captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team
  • WSF Wilma Rudolph Award Winner
  • WSF Athlete Advisory Panel

Lauryn Williams

 

  • Olympic gold medalist, 2012
  • Two-time Olympic silver medalist, 2004, 2014 (bobsled)
  • Three-time world championship gold medalist, 2005, 2007
  • Two-time world championship silver medalist, 2006, 2007
  • First American woman to medal at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games
  • WSF Athlete Advisory Panel

Sasha DiGiulian

 

  • Three-time US National champion
  • Female Overall World Champion, 2011 and 2015
  • Three-time IFSC World Championships medalist
  • Undefeated Junior Continental champion
  • 2012 Salewa Rock Legend Award winner
  • 2012 Golden Piton Award Recipient
  • First North American woman to climb grade 9a and to onsight 8b+
  • Over 30 first female ascents
  • First female free ascent of Mora Mora, 2017

Phaidra Knight

 

Phaidra Knight, J.D. is a Women’s Sports Foundation Past President, World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee, sports media talent, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and mixed martial artist. One of the premier players in the sport of rugby, she made three appearances in the Rugby World Cup, was selected as the top player in the world in two different positions, was named the USA Rugby Player of the Decade in 2010, and became the first African American and eighth woman inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. In 2017, Knight was named head coach of the newly formed Monroe College women’s rugby team in the Bronx, New York, and she has served as a director and coach of Play Rugby USA, the premier Olympic nonprofit dedicated to reaching kids in underserved communities in New York.

Knight recently launched PSK Collective, a fusion of activewear and streetwear for girls and women, and she is also the founder of PeaK Unleashed, a non-profit organization devoted to cultivating personal and physical development of marginalized youth through rugby and yoga. She is a keynote speaker, addressing many audiences on leadership, resilience, LGBTQ rights, race, and anti-bullying. Concurrently, Knight works as a Rugby Analyst for NBC Sports, ESPN, and CBS Sports, and continues to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Women’s Sports Foundation, and is training to make her professional debut as an MMA fighter.

  • Inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, 2017
  • 18-year member of the US Women’s National Rugby team with 35 international caps
  • Three-time Women’s Rugby World Cup participant
  • Two-time All-World Team honoree
  • Named USA Rugby’s Player of the Decade in 2010
  • Currently holds a world scoring record
  • Coach of the Under 19 New York Rugby Club
  • Travel & Training Fund Grant Recipient (2011)
  • WSF Yolanda Jackson Give Back Award winner, 2017

Meryl Davis

 

• Three-time Olympic medalist, gold in 2014
• Two-time World Champion
• Three-time Four Continents champion
• Six-time U.S. National champion
• 2014 USOC Best of the U.S. Team of the Games
• 2014 WSF Team Sportswoman of the Year
• WSF Athlete Advisory Panel

Jessica Long

 

  • 23-time Paralympic gold medalist
  • Four-time Paralympian, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016
  • Second-most decorated Paralympian in U.S. history
  • Three-time Pan Pacific Para Swimming medalist, 2018
  • 35-time IPC Swimming World Champion
  • Three-time ESPY award winner for Best Female Athlete with a Disability
  • Five-time world record-holder
  • 2011-12 Paralympic Sports Woman of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee
  • WSF Athlete Advisory Panel

Laila Ali

 

 

  • Super Middleweight Champion in 2002 and 2005
  • Undefeated World Champion Boxer with a 24-0 record and 21 knock-outs
  • Wrote the autobiography Reach! Finding Strength, Spirit, and Personal Power.
  • Nominated multiple times for BET’s Female Athlete of the Year award and won in 2002.
  • Paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy for the fourth edition of Dancing with the Stars.
  •  Women’s Sports Foundation Past-President

 

Alana Nichols, Past President

 

Alana Nichols grew up in Farmington, New Mexico living an active lifestyle by participating in multiple athletics and having a passion for skiing and snowboarding. In 2000 during a ski trip in Colorado, she suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury while snowboarding, paralyzing her from the waist down. Thinking her athletic career was over, she experienced a wheelchair basketball game her freshman year at the University of New Mexico. The physical and competitive gameplay reignited her athletic endeavors and later she transferred to the University of Arizona to participate in the intercollegiate program for disabled sports. She later received her master’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Alabama.

Since, she has competed in several Paralympic Games and is the first woman Paralympian to win gold medals at both Summer and Winter games. Debuting at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, she won the gold competing in women’s wheelchair basketball. But she wouldn’t stop there, as she went on to compete in the next four consecutive Paralympic games, winning 2 more gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. She has competed in wheelchair basketball, alpine skiing, and at her final Paralympic Games in Rio, canoeing.

Alana may have retired from her Paralympic career, but while in the mix of training for her multiple events, she developed a new passion for surfing that which, like most of the things she does, she excels. She has competed in the ISA Worlds Adaptive Surfing Championship in 2015, placing 7th in an all-male field in the upright division. With her beautiful newly born baby boy Gunnar and her husband Roy Tuscany, she will continue surfing, working to implement adaptive surfing into the 2024 games, being an amazing athlete, and even better mother and person.

Career Highlights

  • Five-time Paralympian
  • Three-time Paralympic gold medalist
  • Two-time Paralympic silver medalist
  • Paralympic bronze medalist
  • First female American to win gold in both the Summer and Winter Games
  • WSF Athlete Advisory Panel
  • WSF Past President

Aja Evans

 

  • Olympic bronze medalist, 2014
  • Two-time Olympian, 2014, 2018
  • World Championship bronze medalist, 2017
  • USA Bobsled Team of the Year, 2017
  • USA Bobsled Rookie of the Year, 2013
  • U.S. Push Champion, 2012
  • Seven-time World Cup medalist