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. This week Sasha and Molly are chatting with Skadi Sport Psychology’s Staci Manella about all things back to school, navigating para-athletics and how we can make more space for athletes with disabilities at every level, and so much more!

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We love this from ASICS, The Undropped Kit – “What if we reimagined the school PE kit to make girls feel more comfortable and stop them dropping out of sport?” From different fit, to thinking about period leakage, the girls provided a ton of feedback to ASICS to create this PE kit. Really it should be whatever bottoms girls want and a variety of tops – I mean really, if your bottoms don’t match, does it really matter?! It’s time to think differently about PE gear.

This week’s guest is Staci Manella – Who is she? A former U.S. Paralympic Alpine ski racer, now a speaker, academic, and like a former guest, a practitioner at Skadi Sport Psychology – among other things. Staci was born legally blind, which she self describes as providing her with many opportunities, like competing for Team USA at two Paralympic Games. In this conversation, you’ll hear so much of Staci’s positivity, but also her grounded reality, where she shares how having a disability shaped her experiences but never limited her vision of what she is capable of achieving.

Sports Highlights:

We’re now deep into Week 2 of the US Open, with Flushing Meadows humming as ever. When this episode comes out, it will be finals weekend! Who are you cheering for?

The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Les Gets wrapped with standout rides from Jenny Rissveds, who had a perfect weekend, which means she won both the short track and the olympic distance—and Canada’s Isabella Holmgren landed on the U23 podium, just after winning Le Tour de L’Avenir Femmes. Alongside this World Cup stop, the World Mountain Bike Championships is also underway in Valais, Switzerland. The short track (Zermatt), the Olympic distance (Crans Montana), and the team relay (Crans Montana) are next week.

There was a lot going on in the world of running, from the Diamond League finals in Zurich, to the Sydney Marathon – the newest in the Abbott World Majors – and UTMB, a trail running festival. The TCS Sydney Marathon presented by ASICS was the latest marathon to join the Abbott World Major Marathons, creating a 7th star. The growth of running and marathons is nothing short of amazing. If you look at these elite start lists one thing stands out, the men still get more opportunities than the women. And finally UTMB, “the world’s ultimate trail running circuit that allows all runners to experience adventure.”According to RUN this year’s numbers for the UTMB finals in Mont Blanc women represented 30% of entries.

If we want to see equitable participation, alongside from the ground up, we need to start from the top-down. Equity starts by giving everyone a chance.

Don’t forget to go back and check out last week’s episode, if you missed our tips on navigating back to school.

A few new preorders have dropped on Strong Girl Publishing, don’t miss out!

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

Molly – @mollyjhurford @stronggirlpublishing

Sasha – @SGollishRuns @Yellow_Running_Shoes

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