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women athletes

She's always been good enough to play with the guys. She even made history doing it.

Becca Longo is making history as the reported first female athlete to receive a football scholarship to a NCAA Division II college. But it almost didn't happen.

Becca always wanted to follow in the footsteps of her football playing older brother, but joining her high school's all-male football team was easier said than done. Even once she had proven herself a skilled athlete, she still found herself facing negativity and assumptions that women can't play football quite as well as men. She worked hard and got lucky — her school let her on the team with the boys.

Sophomore year, she was a three-sport athlete, playing football, basketball, and running track. She was a kicker on the football team and the team embraced her as one of their own, as they would any other player.

Then — as if busting the stereotype that girls can't play football wasn't hard enough — Becca learned that she had a stress fractures in her back. Doctors gave her the news every athlete dreads hearing: She needed to rest.

Dismayed, Becca spent her junior year strengthening her core and watching her teammates play from the sidelines. Finally, when senior year rolled around, she was ready and more motivated than ever to compete again — and compete she did.

Her story is an inspiration to any girl who wants to play football, and any athlete sidelined by an injury — it just goes to show what doors hard work, determination, and a refusal to bow to stereotypes can open for you.

Check out Becca's journey below:

Say hello to the first woman to land a Division II football scholarship.
Posted by Upworthy on Wednesday, April 19, 2017

In 2012, designer Wendy Fox was watching the London Olympics when she noticed something about the women athletes.

"I was really amazed by the physical diversity of the female athletes and how vastly they differ depending on the requirements of the sport," says Fox.

The Women's 100-meter hurdles at the 2012 Olympics in London. Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images.

Some of the fastest, strongest, most athletic, and inspiring women in the world don't have bodies that adhere to a societal ideal. They have bodies built for speed, agility, strength, and in short — kicking ass.

Fox decided to turn all 276 female gold medal winners into a poster of inspiration, perspiration, and representation.

Photo via Kickstarter/Wendy Fox.

You may know some of their names — like McKayla Maroney, Misty May-Treanor, and Serena Williams — but you probably haven't heard of most of them.

That might be because, according to a 25-year study, the coverage of women's sports in media is often shamefully small when compared to the coverage men's sports get.

In 2016, a little less than half of the athletes competing in the Olympics will be women. The most in history. So Wendy Fox is stepping it up.

She's turned to Kickstarter to help fund a poster and book filled with illustrations of every woman who wins gold in the Rio Olympics.

Photo via Kickstarter/Wendy Fox.

The goal is to inspire young girls — who will see accomplished women athletes held up as high as men often are — but also to help foster a worldwide interest in women's sports.

Women athletes are too often objectified and sexualized, with little attention paid to their athletic prowess.

A quick Google search for "female athletes" will yield a depressing amount of listicles containing the "hottest" or "sexiest" female athletes instead of anything remotely substantive.

Not to mention the fact that women in general are still held to absurd beauty standards and often judged for the way they look far more than their merits and accomplishments.

Serena Williams at Wimbledon 2016. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.

Just look at what happens over and over to Serena Williams, inarguably one of the greatest athletes of all time. She has to wade through absurd body-shaming controversies while she's busy doing awesome things like, I dunno, WINNING WIMBLEDON.

In her illustrations, Fox is careful to draw the athletes to scale, beautifully depicting the fact that all heights, builds, weights, and skin colors are capable of greatness.

"I would love for girls to look at this project and discover a sport that’s for them," writes Fox in her Kickstarter campaign, "especially a sport that they didn’t even know existed before and for them to make a conscious shift in their perception of what it is that their bodies are capable of."

Photo via Kickstarter/Wendy Fox.

So pay attention in Rio 2016, because the list of women champions is probably going to fill up fast. And if you pay closer attention, you'll see that champions come in all shapes and sizes.

Family

How a sisterhood of badass women is redefining what it means to be a female athlete.

After her spine and spirit were shattered, Meghan Sekone-Fraser found redemption through a sisterhood of badass women.

True

When Meghan Sekone-Fraser's back was shattered in a car accident, her Olympic dreams shattered as well.

Meghan Sekone-Fraser was well on her way to becoming an Olympic rower. She admits she wasn't as tall or naturally powerful as her teammates, but she kept pushing forward and gained exceptional results.

Unfortunately, those exceptional results came at an exceptional price.

Meghan Sekone-Fraser had to reevaluate her life after enduring a devastating accident. Photo from Meghan Sekone-Fraser, used with permission.

"I struggled with overtraining, injury, body image issues, and eating disorders for the entire span of my 10-year rowing career," Sekone-Fraser told Upworthy. "But I was so focused on my goals that I didn’t see the damage being done."

Then, in 2011, her dreams of reaching the London Olympics came crashing down when a car accident severely injured her back. She was in constant emotional and physical pain.

She was afraid she had lost everything.

So Sekone-Fraser changed her course. But she wasn't pleased with what she saw on her path.

Being an Olympic rower wasn't in the cards for Sekone-Fraser, but she wasn't ready to give up on her passion for athletics.

After months of searching, she discovered muay thai as a way to exercise and still exert her toughness.

Muay thai was a great release for Sekone-Fraser after her accident, but it wasn't all good. Photo from Ashley Kress Photography, used with permission.

But there was a problem.

"When I looked into the sea of women's activewear brands, I couldn't help but notice that I am not represented by the current brands and they did not want to be represented by me," she said. "I'm not a yogi, I don't meditate, I don't like green smoothies, and I am definitely not a size four."

She wasn't interested in brands telling her what kind of lifestyle — or body type — she should be striving for. She was looking for something that said, "Right now, in this very moment, you are powerful. You are a fighter."

And just like in her rowing days, she felt she would never fit in — until her husband stumbled upon Society Nine, an apparel company that focuses on women in combat sports.

Once he found Society Nine, Sekone-Fraser instantly knew this was the answer she was looking for. And not just because of the clothes.

"When I saw their manifesto video, I cried," she said. "After seeing images of women of all shapes, sizes, and colors kicking ass, I saw myself in the brand and knew that Society Nine had the ability to really make an impact and shift the way women view themselves."

It meant there were other women like her. Women like Maria Khwaja, a Muslim-American woman battling intolerance. Women like Mildred Apenyo, who fights for women's right to enjoy to their own space without being catcalled or harassed by men.

Powerful women who weren't backing down from major obstacles.

Meet a few of the diverse women of Society Nine. Photo from Society Nine, used with permission.

This kind of message isn't just one brand. It's a movement, with other companies like Machina Boxing and Kali Active getting onboard, too.

Lynn Le, the founder of Society Nine, thinks it's a good thing.

"Women have been told by society to bite our tongues, dress appropriately, look good in a bikini, be an amazing cook, have killer careers, and be amazing daughters and wives," she said. "We fight because we had to fight against the tide of expectations forever. It's time for women to define power on our own terms."

Lynn Le is very passionate about her mission. Photo from Society Nine, used with permission.

Sekone-Fraser fights, still, to repair her fractured relationship with her body. Being part of a new generation of warrior women is just the ammo she needs.

"As a rower, my abilities were defined by what I saw in the mirror," Sekone-Fraser said. "In this new chapter of my life, what I saw in the mirror was defined by my abilities. That shift in my mind was one of the most empowering things that's ever happened in my life."

Sekone-Fraser (seen here with her husband) is all smiles now that she's true to who she is. Photo from Ashley Kress Photography, used with permission.

"It took me 30 years to begin disrupting my internal dialogue of self-doubt and negativity," she admits. "That's a long time to not embrace yourself."

Loving ourselves is something we should fight for every single day.

women athletes

She's always been good enough to play with the guys. She even made history doing it.

Becca Longo is making history as the reported first female athlete to receive a football scholarship to a NCAA Division II college. But it almost didn't happen.

This book is filled with drawings of Olympic women, and it's amazing.

In 2012, designer Wendy Fox was watching the London Olympics when she noticed something about the women athletes.

Fox decided to turn all 276 female gold medal winners into a poster of inspiration, perspiration, and representation.

In 2016, a little less than half of the athletes competing in the Olympics will be women. The most in history. So Wendy Fox is stepping it up.

Women athletes are too often objectified and sexualized, with little attention paid to their athletic prowess.

In her illustrations, Fox is careful to draw the athletes to scale, beautifully depicting the fact that all heights, builds, weights, and skin colors are capable of greatness.

How a sisterhood of badass women is redefining what it means to be a female athlete.

After her spine and spirit were shattered, Meghan Sekone-Fraser found redemption through a sisterhood of badass women.

When Meghan Sekone-Fraser's back was shattered in a car accident, her Olympic dreams shattered as well.

So Sekone-Fraser changed her course. But she wasn't pleased with what she saw on her path.

And just like in her rowing days, she felt she would never fit in — until her husband stumbled upon Society Nine, an apparel company that focuses on women in combat sports.

This kind of message isn't just one brand. It's a movement, with other companies like Machina Boxing and Kali Active getting onboard, too.

Sekone-Fraser fights, still, to repair her fractured relationship with her body. Being part of a new generation of warrior women is just the ammo she needs.

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