In 1996 - NIKE Women had a print ad that read:
"If you let me play sports
I will like myself more;
I will have more self-confidence,
I will be 60 percent less likely to get breast cancer;
I will suffer less depression.
I will be more likely to leave a man who beats me.
I will be less likely to get pregnant
I will learn what it means to be strong.
If you let me play sports."

I believe that girls who played sports while young and continue to be involved in athletics throughout their life carry themselves with that extra “it factor” – confidence, charisma, charm and intelligence.

I learned how to swim around the same time I learned to walk and began swim lessons at the age of two at the local YMCA. At the age of seven I joined the swim team and didn’t stop practicing and competing until I graduated college. Half my life has been spent submerged in chlorine: one to three hours a day, sometimes double practices, six days a week, for fifteen years. It was the pool, my swim team, where I found my swagger, my swing. It was the pool where I developed a competitive edge to out-swim the boys. The pool bubbled in my greatest victories and felt the tears of my worst defeats. The pool never doubted my ability or judged me in my swimsuit. The pool was always there...ready for my next lap. And aside from a broad back and built quadriceps, swimming cultivated my confidence and gave me my best friends. I will always share a common bond with these best friends, my teammates. I could be having the worst day, and when I stepped on deck with 25 other girls, my worries melted. There is something electrifying about a team of women working toward the same goal. Although swimming is primarily an individual sport, we had to work together as a team to succeed individually. If one girl strayed behind, it was the responsibility of all girls to lift her spirit.

Today, as a woman in the corporate world, I’ve recognized this “theory” of women who played sports as girls in action. The most successful women, the women in the highest positions, the women with the most respect, poise, presentation skills, negotiating skills, communication skills and all around confidence played sports as girls. Trust me, I have asked. I secretly flutter like a butterfly when I ask other female co-workers if they played sports as young girls, because 99% of the time, I know their answer before even asking. Even Billie Jean King was quoted as saying that “when surveys of successful women in Fortune 500 business’ are conducted, 80% of these women, say they were in sports as a young woman.”

Girls, women will KNOW what it means to be strong...
If you let her play sports, if you let her be on a team.

-Ashley Koehn