Women In Sports

""I realised that I’ve gone through so many different experiences in my life, so I thought: ‘Why not write about them and tell the world what I’ve gone through?’ And even though sometimes I might feel alone, I’m not alone.”"

"Speaking on her vitiligo, Tiffany admits, “it took a couple of years to be comfortable looking into the mirror and being ok with the new version of me. Throughout it all, music provided solace"."

"Tiffany's most personal rap yet, ‘Diary of a black woman’, she says, is intended to represent minority athletes and spread a message about positive self-image – an issue she herself has struggled with."

"We must see this clearly for what it is—a maternal health crisis. That is why we must continue to fight to protect the lives of every woman and every mother in our nation"

"Becoming a mother and looking at my daughter and the world she’ll grow up in helped me find my voice and speak on some things I would’ve shied away from before."

"Motherhood is the thing that has touched me the most, really normalizing mothers in sport and women not having to choose between that part of life and staying in their professions"

"I wanna be the perfect"

"I think a have so much fear about speaking out or just having an opinion on something."

"You get to realise that the little love you know is not enough for the person that you're with."

"It didn't matter where I came from, I was talented."

"When you are Black, it comes with disadvantages, because you need to really prove yourself."

"We are there to do what we love, to share the game, to motivate other women out there and to make sure that if they want to play the game, there are people like us fighting for them."

"There is nothing wrong in being a lesbian; it is how you project yourself in public places. You are born with it and you won't just change it because somebody says you should do it."

"Gdansk is beautiful. I like multicultural cities. I came here at the beginning of the year (2021) and worked the entire preparation period with the team (AP Loros Gdansk). I am from outside Europe so playing in different leagues was a challenge for me."

"We need more opportunities to showcase what we can do. It’s sad to see talent go to waste because of a lack of opportunities, but the fact that there is NSW African Women's Cup shows how much the game has changed. We have many girls of African heritage who are good players. A competition like this definitely opens up opportunities for those of us who have been working really hard and that's exciting."

"I remember countless times where I played barefoot or without shin pads and was injured many times, but if you love the game, you love the game. Football is everything, it’s part of my identity nobody can take away from me."

"Priscilla came to Gdańsk at the beginning of January (2021), so she already had some time to acclimatize, but we realize that in her case this period may be a bit different than in the case of the Polish players. That is why all club employees try to do everything to make her feel as good as possible in Gdańsk. I am also glad that the other players received her warmly. I believe Priscilla will bring a lot to the team's offensive performance."

"I wanted to play football from the age of seven, although my mother says that I had been digging other items before. It was a dream come true for me to be able to play in Europe. I was prepared for it much earlier. At the beginning, it was not easy because I had a collision with low temperatures, which was new to me. Today I'm used to it."

"I think that when the team has a match, they will need as many fans as possible at the stadium to cheer them on. That has to happen for everything to work out well for the Queens. When the players see the fans, they will give all they have and perform well on the pitch."

"Our national team is Ghana Black Queens. I consider it a great achievement in my career. It is an honor to represent the national colors."

"I believe that with the Black Queens going forward they have the full support of us as the nation (Ghana)."

"I wish the male and female national teams every success in their international tournaments as they set example for the rest of our teams. I thank God for what has been an opportunity not only to contribute to football but to learn even more about Ghana. It is these new insights and lessons that I will treasure most into the future."

"I will like to begin by applauding all the female footballers of Ghana, not just the Black Queens but all of them who produced the pipeline of women who will eventually go on to become Black Queens and those who have gone before them who have set an example and demonstrated to them that women is football is possible and younger women can aspire to participate in football."

"Go Black Queens, yes."

"I have promised to give the team a sum of $10,000 should they make it to the semi-finals. I have high hopes they will make it to the finals but this is to further motivate them as we support them. I urge all Ghanaians to support the team."

"It was a very competitive race with strong runners...the course was very good and the weather was perfect for running. I am going back to Kenya to prepare the track season. My goal is to qualify for the Olympic Games in the 10,000m."

"I had to keep on checking who is behind me, how I am doing...that’s all I was doing, and I decided to be ahead of the boys, so I was always checking behind me."

"Since Valencia, I have just been training and focusing on Bengaluru. Even though the race has been put back two weeks, that hasn’t affected me. In fact, it’s allowed me to prepare slightly better."

"It's more a case of giving it less thought...last time I really missed racing and I know I'm going to feel just the same when the baby's born. I came back (in 2007) and I'm not saying I started back running too soon 12 days after the birth but rather the scale at which I ramped it up. I had gone through a difficult labour and I didn't give my body enough time to recover."

"Of course, I set the women-only world record for the half marathon (1:06:11) in Valencia and that was a race without pacemakers. I have also run times for 10,000m on the track (personal best 30:36.75, 2016) and 10km on the road (31:35, 2017) that are better than the course record but the most important thing for me is to win."

"The race went according to plan, I was only thinking about the gold medal."

"I am saddened by the Black Queens defeat. The defeat was here because I noticed that the players didn’t play their hearts out for the nation. Most of the players are inexperienced so clearly you could see that they are not matured enough to play for the Queens."

"It’s worrying the Black Queens has been evicted from the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations tournament. After defeat to Nigeria in the first leg, we should have overturned the scoreline but unfortunately, it didn’t happen."

"For the first time we are hosting the tournament in Ghana and our prayer is that our ladies will be able to win it. Normally when you go for tournaments, it is always important to start on a winning note, so my advise to the team is that they start the tournament well by winning and playing well. Fortunately for us, we are playing here in Ghana, so we will have the fans backing us. We can only make them proud by winning our first game.""

"I didn’t know I was going to win because the race was tough. I used my mind and decided to be patient...We had the Ethiopians in the races before and we saw they are strong on the hills. This was the last chance, I don’t think I’m going to go for another World Cross-Country."

"The race was good. I just wanted to seal top two...I have no pressure; I will be facing familiar opponents in Tokyo. I am used to fast-paced races and all I am going to do is continue with my training."

"I ran a 3000m race representing my Woreda [district] and finished second at the All-Tigray Games...It was this performance that convinced me that I may have a future in athletics."

"Some people believe that it is nowadays very difficult for junior winners to make it at senior level...But I believe that there is nothing that stops a junior athlete from making it at senior level. Actually, coming up from success at junior levels is easier because there is little pressure and expectation when competing with senior athletes."

"I really did not do anything special to prepare for Guiyang...I never stress about competition and thought I should just follow the leading group and rely on my finishing speed at the end. I am really happy about my individual result, but even happier that we [Ethiopia] took the top three places."

"With God’s help, I can get the double...I am very confident now."

"This victory to me was even more important than a world record...I am so happy about this performance."

"I was thinking about winning this gold since 2019, but Hassan was always there. I was also watching Hellen Obiri...This time, I was really watching them, and I knew I had to be very fast in the last 300 metres."

"You can’t be like Eliud if you want to sit down and you say, ‘I want to be like Eliud Kipchoge’. Eliud Kipchoge does not sit down and wait to go and win races!"

"I do hope that next year (2024) is going to be good for me because I’ve done a lot and I’ve won the silver medal...So I want to upgrade it to gold."

"It’s encouraged me a lot to work hard because it’s a new life, it’s a new environment...I said, let me try to win because I asked you [to come] here. No excuses, I must perform. So I think they encouraged me a lot to train and to focus well."

"You know, now you are saying you are not alone...There’s someone who depends on me. My daughter needs to go to school, needs to have a good background, a good life. So you have to work hard because someone is looking up to you."

"I said in my mind let me try to be patient. When were at about 25k, I said ‘patient’. And when I reached 42km, I said, ‘no, I want to win this race.’ And I said, ‘can I just use track speed to go?"

"What came to my mind in New York was to finish the race so I can learn how to do my next marathon...So it helped me a lot to learn about patience. In New York I didn’t know about patience, I ran it like it was a track race."

"It is all about focus. The training for 1500m and 5000m is different, you do more because the distance is longer, you basically change everything in training."

"With a year of marathon experience now under my belt, a win in Boston, and my move to the U.S., I’m coming to New York this year (2023) with more confidence and in search of a title...I’m excited to show the people of New York what I’m capable of and that my win at the United Airlines NYC Half in March was just the beginning."