I am woman, watch me score!

As a woman who has been involved in sports her entire life, that fact makes me beam. Not in a negative, “we showed the boys” kind of way, but in a proud demonstration of everything that sports have stood for in my life and everything they have transformed me into. The success of our women’s national hockey team (a sport that has no money, no NHL, no Stanley Cup), gave me goose bumps, because it stood in stark contrast to the overpaid, sometimes obnoxious millionaires who made up the men’s team. Those women represented what makes sports so true and inspirational and the Olympic effort so timeless. But the fact that our girls dominated the podium gave me much more than pride; it gave me hope.

In a world of Britney Spears and Jessica Simpsons, of Chihuahua-carrying, porn- video-producing Paris Hiltons, of scantily clad gyrating MTV video models, of emaciated pouting cover models gracing the front pages of Vogue, these athletes give young girls something to emulate that won’t frantically send them dieting, purging and self-destructing.

Sports teach young girls that strong is beautiful and powerful, that they need a hearty meal otherwise they won’t be able to function at their next practice, that camaraderie and goal-setting and striving for perfection can transform them into capable and confident individuals; sports can make them into better versions of themselves. Sports teach them that they don’t have time to be the cheerleaders, because they’re too busy being the point guards or the goalies.

I love being a woman. I love dressing up, putting on makeup and high heels, but, if truth be told, nothing makes me feel sexier and stronger than putting on my tights and my baseball cap and heading out to train.

I’m a girl who grew up playing sports who grew up to be a woman who still loves playing them. I know the joys of training, competing and bonding with my team mates. I know the shared exhilaration of standing on a podium with a team of women with which you share a bond that can never be broken; receiving medals and trophies that will eventually gather dust or be thrown in a shoe box, but will never grow old.

Women who train and compete in sports share a common sisterhood. We understand each other. We “get” the aches and the pains and the overwhelming desire to hit the gym or the trail after a nagging injury. We know what it feels like to leave everything –work, family, in-laws- at the door and just unload on that treadmill and sweat out all our worries.

Most importantly, competing in sports taught me not to pay attention to what society is telling me. Because, as a woman, society (and by extension every magazine cover, every TV show, every billboard) is going to tell you you’re not pretty enough, not skinny enough, not tall enough, not flirty enough.

But you know what sports tell you? You’re perfect. You’re strong. You’re a force to be reckoned with. It doesn’t matter what your body looks like; it’s what it can do that counts. You’re exactly who you need to be.

Studies have concluded, time and time again, that girls who play sports have higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of depression than girls who don’t. “What changes when a woman becomes an athlete?” former professional basketball player and author Mariah Burton Nelson was once asked. “Everything,” she emphatically replied.

Sports teach women that standing in the sidelines or on the bleachers can be fun, but it’s way better to be part of the game; to be in the game.

While double standards and gender stereotyping still exist –particularly in editorial coverage of women’s sports - it’s hard to imagine that there was even a time when women were considered too fragile both physically and psychologically by doctors, educators, sports leaders and legislators to get “down and dirty.”

There’s a soccer field near my house and every time I drive by and the little four or five-year-old future Mia Hamms are playing, I slow down and watch them. They’re such a beautiful sight; all pony tails and determined expressions, shin pads and team jerseys trailing down to their knees. They make me smile because they give me hope for the next generation of women. Sports are the perfect antidote for a world obsessed with shallowness, superficiality, good looks, perfect weight and the dumbing down of women. For every one of our female athletes on that Olympic podium, there were 100 young girls back home who suddenly saw what they could become. And that is so worth celebrating...

I am who I am today because I played sports. There are days when the only thing that keeps me sane is heading to the gym. I am thankful for that haven. Leadership, hard work, teamwork, the value of diversity and shared commitment… I learned those things on the basketball court. They spilled over into my adult life and into my career. Those ideals empower me every single day of my life and that opportunity is something that every girl deserves, and is something worth fighting for. If you have a daughter, trust me on this one, the best thing you can ever do for her, is put her in sports. She’ll thank you later.