When I was really young, the women's national team wasn't on a grand media stage, so my role models were male basketball and male American football players.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I believe that athletes - especially female athletes in the world's leading sport for women - should serve as role models.
There's no doubt about it that my participation in sports allowed me to compete in the business world in a very gender-neutral way.
The male role models I had all seemed to have been in the military. My father served in the army. My uncle was in the Marine Corps. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII. There weren't any career soldiers in my family, but when I was young it seemed like a way of arriving at adulthood.
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.
The only reason we make good role models is because you guys look up to athletes and we can influence you in positive ways. But the real role models should be your parents and teachers!
When I first started designing sportswear, I felt that women weren't represented in sports performance. I felt that men were dressed really well both technically and visually, and women were almost like an afterthought.
I'm not just a model who plays volleyball, or a volleyball player who supports herself modeling. I'm a female athlete personality.
I found through my fan mail that women... really wanted a role model.
I'm a role model for lots of young girls.
With 'Love & Basketball,' I played ball my whole life and did track at UCLA. So, I'm an athlete. And it was very important for me to get it right. I started with casting: As an athlete, there's nothing worse for me than watching a sports movie and the woman that they hire can't run or can't shoot. It sets women's sports back years.
No opposing quotes found.