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In recent generations, women's sports have been a blessing. Some of us can remember the bad old days in the '50s, when we would discover in casual schoolyard play that a girl could outrun most of us or hold her own in basketball or hit a softball - but there were no teams, no coaches, for girls.

I believe that athletes - especially female athletes in the world's leading sport for women - should serve as role models.

When the Olympics and World Cups come around, that's when you see the real outpouring of support that there really is for female football.

I don't think there's anything that is a greater area of discrimination against women today than the fact that nowhere in the world is there a female role model in team sports that more than half of a general audience would recognize.

We live in a world where sports have the potential to bridge the gap between racism, sexism and discrimination. The 2012 Olympic Games was a great start but hopefully what these games taught us is that if women are given an opportunity on an equal playing field the possibilities for women are endless.

Women's sport helps break down a lot of barriers for women in other areas, whether in religion or politics.

I think women athletes who have been successful need to help other sports, those sports that are just emerging. That's what I've been thinking about and looking forward to.

It is incredible how far women have come and women in sports have come.

The problem, as a female athlete, is that you don't want to come across as negative and moaning.