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Julie Foudy on being a trailblazer in sports

The Paley Impact event, Choosing to Challenge: How Women Are Leading the Way, featured a panel of prominent women from around the world and across public policy, sports, business, entertainment and culture. In this clip Julie Foudy speaks about the power of being a trailblazer and how sports teaches you so many skill sets beyond what you use between the lines.

Video Transcript

ALICIA MENENDEZ: Julie, Misty reminds me that the number of people on this panel who are multi-hypenates. And you, of course, I mean, you have one part of your career where you were an athlete. You now have this other part of your career where you are a commentator and a writer. And I wonder how you compare those two worlds when it comes to this question of being a woman who is navigating a male-dominated space.

JULIE FOUDY: I look back and I hear these stories from all these women here in different industries and different silos, and what you learned by doing that trailblazing, which is what we did with the soccer team for so many years. And as an athlete, with Billie Jean King, who's a dear friend and mentor, she calls it, you know, the "first gen," the first generation of athletes to come through their sport, and the power of that. Because you learn by going through a lot of hardships. You learn by having to plow through some honestly not so good times.

And you grow and you learn, and one of the things I think is such a gift, and I'm sure Misty feels the same way, is just that sports teaches you so many other life skill sets about how to be a great teammate, how to celebrate others, how to, when someone tells you no, to really-- it would be this moment where the team would come together. They'd smile, and they'd be, like, really? You're going to tell us no to that right now? No.

And the skills set you take with you into that next career, and it's a thread that runs through your whole life. So to hear it from other industries and other women, and to understand that we all go through that, especially the ones that come through the first, and to stand on those shoulders, it is a huge honor.