N.A.A. from the Archives: Save Women's Sports with Coach Linda Blade, Marshi Smith, and Guests! cover art

N.A.A. from the Archives: Save Women's Sports with Coach Linda Blade, Marshi Smith, and Guests!

N.A.A. from the Archives: Save Women's Sports with Coach Linda Blade, Marshi Smith, and Guests!

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 This archival episode of North American Angst turns its focus to another arena where women are being told to surrender quietly: sport.Peeja, Emmi, and Carol bring together athletes and advocates who have spent their lives inside competitive sport, only to watch policies reshape women’s categories in ways they say undermine fairness and opportunity. Coach and author Linda Blade and former NCAA champion swimmer Marshi Smith speak candidly about the moment each realized that women’s competition was being redefined without meaningful debate, and what it means for girls now coming up through the system.What makes this conversation land is not ideology but experience. Stories surface of young athletes losing podium places, scholarships, and confidence. Coaches speak privately while fearing professional consequences. Parents worry about daughters competing in environments they feel are no longer fair. Meanwhile, women who raise concerns face backlash while institutions insist the changes are necessary and settled.The discussion moves beyond wins and losses to what sport actually builds. Both Blade and Smith describe how athletics shaped their own lives, opening doors to education, careers, and personal confidence. For them, protecting women’s sport is not nostalgia or exclusion. It is about preserving a pathway that has allowed generations of women to compete, grow, and succeed on equal terms.The episode also explores the growing legal and political pushback now unfolding across North America. Lawsuits against governing bodies, proposed legislation, and grassroots organizing are beginning to challenge policies that once seemed untouchable. Women who once spoke only in private are now stepping forward publicly, often at personal cost.Throughout the conversation, one theme repeats: silence was expected. Resistance was not.Blade and Smith describe a movement slowly gaining confidence as more athletes, parents, and supporters decide they are no longer willing to accept policies they believe harm female competitors. They argue that meaningful change will come not from outrage alone, but from sustained public pressure, legal action, and everyday people refusing to look away.This episode ultimately serves as both record and rallying point. It captures a moment when women in sport are deciding whether to stand down or stand firm.And it leaves listeners with a question that extends well beyond athletics: when fairness becomes negotiable, who pays the price?Nothing in this conversation asks for anger alone.It asks for courage.Because the girls competing now do not get to choose the policies shaping their futures.The responsibility to change them falls to everyone watching from the outside.Check out Unsporting: How Trans Activism and Science Denial are Destroying Sport by Linda BladeLearn more about ICONSICONS on XFollow Coach Blade on XFollow Marshi Smith on XThe tent remains open. The fire does not go out.Truth survives because women carry it.Sign up to The Quill and get the latest from The Red Tent Collective.Have tech skills? Need tech skills? Become an official member.
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