Women Sports USA® Articles

Explore the history of women’s sports through the athletes, coaches, and advocates who expanded opportunities to compete. From early Olympians to Title IX and professional leagues, their stories reveal how progress happens—and why preserving it matters.

After a lifetime of competing. Personal story about sports and aging, resilience, and why the athlete within us never truly disappears.

The most important part of an athlete’s comeback often happens away from the spotlight. Discover how recovery teaches patience, resilience, self-trust and a new understanding of strength.

Rest is not time away from athletic development—it is an essential part of it. Discover how recovery helps athletes rebuild, perform better, and enjoy sports longer.

From mountain trails and ski slopes to soccer fields and neighborhood parks, women and girls across Colorado are finding confidence, community, and opportunity through sports and outdoor recreation.

Women were excluded from the first modern Olympics, but they refused to remain on the sidelines. Discover how pioneering athletes and advocates broke barriers between 1896 and 1928 and transformed women’s place in the Olympic Games.

Perseverance in sports is not always about pushing harder. Linda Herron shares how athletics taught her to navigate setbacks, accept support, adapt to change, and keep taking the next meaningful step.

Why do so many girls leave sports as they grow older? Explore the barriers girls face and the practical ways coaches, families, schools, and communities can help them feel supported, confident, and inspired to stay in the game.

Long before wearable technology, strength coaches, sports nutrition, and recovery programs, women athletes trained with determination, repetition, and the resources available to them. Explore how women’s athletic training evolved through the decades—and how generations of female athletes helped shape modern sports science.

Great coaches prepare athletes for more than the next competition. By supporting physical health, mental well-being, recovery, balance, and confidence, coaches can help athletes build healthy habits that last a lifetime.

Sports gave Linda Herron far more than competition and memories. In this personal From Linda’s Desk® reflection, she shares how discipline, confidence, resilience, teamwork, and leadership stayed with her long after the games ended.

Being an athlete does not end when competition does. Discover how movement helps women maintain strength, confidence, connection and independence throughout every stage of life.

Sports teach female athletes how to communicate, overcome setbacks, support different people, and lead with confidence and humility. These valuable lessons continue shaping their careers, families, businesses, and communities long after the uniform comes off.

Women coaches do more than develop athletic ability. They build confidence, teach leadership, strengthen resilience, and create a sense of belonging that athletes carry throughout their lives.

Women’s sports create an impact far beyond the field. Discover how female athletes strengthen families, connect schools and communities, and inspire future generations.

Today’s girls have more opportunities than ever to participate, compete and lead in sports. Explore the progress, pathways and challenges shaping their future.

Sports build more than athletes—they build extraordinary women. Discover the lifelong lessons female athletes carry far beyond competition.

Sports do more than create athletes—they build confident leaders. Discover how participation in sports empowers girls and women with lifelong skills that shape success both on and off the field.

Meet the leadership team helping guide Women Sports USA® and its mission to celebrate, empower, and spotlight girls and women in sports across the United States

Coach Debra McMullen spent 37 seasons building East Greenwich Field Hockey into one of Rhode Island’s premier programs while shaping confident athletes, leaders, and lifelong teammates.