Celebrating National Girls & Women in Sports Day: Gratitude and appreciation extends out to those mothers, grandmothers & team moms in our community. You who have had a big impact on our program while encouraging players through cheer, staying positive and providing a snack here and there. Many thanks & cheers from South Valley Flag and the Gridiron Gang.
We will continue to advocate for girls and women in sports as we work towards some new, fun and exciting things on the Horizon at SVF. Thanks for stopping by, we'll see you out there on Sundays! WE GOT YOUR BACK!
Take a look at these Bay Area Female Athletes leading the way for the red, white & blue in the 2022 Winter Olympics:
BRITA SIGOURNEY, Freestyle Skiing
Event: Halfpipe
Age: 31 — Birthplace: Monterey — Hometown: Carmel
College: UC Davis and Westminster College
Olympic experience: Three-time Olympian (2014, 2018, 2022), winning bronze at PyeongChang in 2018 and sixth at Sochi in 2014
World Championship experience: Finished sixth in 2011 and and ninth in 2017, finishing sixth
Other career highlights: First in World Cup standings in halfpipe in 2011 and 2012; Top-10 in World Cup standings in halfpipe in 2014-15-16-17; 2011 X Games silver medal in superpipe; 2015 X Games bronze medal in superpipe
Personal: Began skiing at the age of 2 and joined the freestyle team at Alpine Meadows at the age of 8 . . . Played water polo while attending college at UC Davis and was on her high school swim team . . . left Davis to train at Park City, Utah, where she resumed college at Westminster.
KAREN CHEN, Figure Skating
Event: Women’s singles
Age: 22 — Birthplace/hometown: Fremont — High school: Connections Academy (online)
Club: Peninsula Skating Club
Olympic experience: 11th at PyeongChang in 2018
World Championship experience: 4th in 2017
Other Career Highlights: 12th at 2016 and 2017 Four Continents Championships; 8th at 2015 World Junior Championships; 9th at 2014 World Junior Championships
Personal: Has one younger brother, Jeffrey, who competes in ice dance . . .Began ice skating at age 4 and started competing two years later . . . Choreographed her own short program for the 2017 season.
ALYSA LIU, Figure Skating
Event: Women’s singles
Age: 16 (youngest athlete on the U.S. team) — Birthplace: Clovis — Hometown: Richmond
Club: St. Moritz ISC, Dublin
Olympic experience: First-time Olympian
World Championship experience: Was too young to compete at the 2019, ’20 or ’21 events
Other career highlights: Youngest-ever U.S. women’s national champion, having won her first crown in 2019 at the age of 13. Also won in 2020, making her first woman to win back-to-back titles since Ashley Wagner in 2012 and ’13 . . . was the first junior American woman to successfully complete a triple Axel in international competition . . . won her first international competition at the 2017 Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy in Hong Kong before she turned 12
Personal: Appeared on the Today Show and Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show after winning her first U.S. title . . . Oldest of five children, all of whom were conceived through an anonymous egg donor and surrogate mothers . . . Her father, Arthur, an Oakland attorney, emigrated from China in 1989 and raised all five children as a single parent. He graduated from Cal State East Bay before earning his law degree at UC Hastings College in San Francisco . . . Alysa takes online classes and often did her school work from a cubicle in her father’s Oakland office.