“While sports are indisputably a positive source of strength and self-development for girls, they can accomplish this only if the environment in which female athletes throw their javelins, kick their soccer balls, and swim their fast and furious laps is an environment that respects girls and takes them seriously as athletes.”

“Why is luge a sport? You dress up like a giant sperm and go sledding really fast. That’s hardly athletic. Phallic and sexy, yes. But hardly athletic.”

“behind the athlete you have become, the hours of practice and pain that made you strive to reach your goal, is the little girl, who fell in love with the game. every little girls love, is to grow up and play the game, just like they've seen before, to grow up playing soccer.”

“I'm always the Skinny Girl, the one with no athletic talents, the girl who doesn't try hard enough, the girl who apparently never eats enough.”

“I think you are talented and passionate, Isabella. More than you think and less than you expect. But there are a lot of people with talent and passion, and many of them never get anywhere. This is only the first step for achieving anything in life. Natural talent is like an athlete's strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes the athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision weapon.”

“Young men do not respect girls they can take advantage of - and they do not as easily take advantage of girls they respect.”