Nia Jax Quotes

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.

That's where I got my passion for the game, watching the WNBA on TV. Cynthia Cooper, Raise the Roof, We Got Next, I was into all of it.

I was living my dream as a WNBA player.

I look at it this way: the WNBA is 13 years young. I think eventually women will get to that point, maybe in my daughter's generation, where their salaries will be similar to men's. But we're still starting off, like, where the NBA was back in the 1950s.

Gender equality cannot be achieved by cutting programs that allow girls to get the same chance to compete, learn, and play. The United States has had a solid history of commitment to its female athletes and expanding opportunity for women, and it is imperative that we continue on this path.

But as much as I am personally proud for winning five championships, I'm equally proud just being part of a women's division that has gotten so much better with all these great athletes here.

Women's sports is still in its infancy. The beginning of women's sports in the United States started in 1972, with the passage of Title 9 for girls to finally get athletic scholarships.

In the seventies we had to make it acceptable for people to accept girls and women as athletes. We had to make it okay for them to be active. Those were much scarier times for females in sports.

Growing up in the time of Title IX - it was passed when I was 10 - I got a front-row seat to so many great moments in women's sports. Of course I didn't know it at the time.

That's the awesome part. Little girls now have a chance to look up and see women playing soccer, basketball, softball and now hockey - and know they can win a gold medal, too.

I think it's great that young girls have the WNBA to look up to now.

Especially with the ladies' game, I have proved we can compete with all these men.

I'd love to have a chance to fight in the World Series Boxing for women, but nothing has been done about that.

Women today are respected as athletes now and that's a really cool thing to see.

When I was in the indies, the guys would be like, 'Ugh, a women's match. I'm not gonna watch that.' And to come back here, at every single Live Event to have a guy come up to you and say, 'That was amazing,' I feel so accomplished.

It's a dream that we, as women footballers, get to play in the same stadium as the men.

In the age of millennials, women's rights, and female empowerment, I hope my voice helps to encourage the next generation of great female athletes and golfers to possibly stop social injustices and prejudices from creeping into the game that I fell in love with at such a young age.

All of us follow men's cricket because we want at some point that women's cricket would be up there.

My heart is with the WNBA. I've had success in the league, I've loved the league. I'm a true fan of the league.

Here I am just trying to fund myself to play a sport, but the greater picture is that I'm a female athlete really pushing the envelope for women in sports.

I'm enormously proud that I can do a deal with the National Women's Soccer League to showcase the power and passion of women athletes as positive role models, not only for my daughter but also for my son.

Women are stepping up, they are performing, they are showing that we are athletes as well and we deserve the attention we are getting.

Just normalising the idea of women playing football is a massive part of what we need to do.

We want more opportunities for women's players throughout the world.

When I was a kid, the women like Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain were paving the way for female players in the States. Things like that are important so girls realise there is a future for them if they want to play. It is something they can aspire to, to be not just a hobby.