Sportette Founder Sam Squiers and LiSTNR present “On Her Game with Sam Squiers” – raw, open and honest conversations with elite female athletes
“You should become a model”. It’s a comment Kaye Scott has heard more than once throughout her amateur boxing career. But Kaye proved the doubters wrong by competing in the 2014 & 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning a silver medal at the 2016 Women’s World Championships and moving from the amateurs to the pros this year. Kaye sits down with host Sam Squiers to share about: How she went from doing boxercise at her local gym to competing on the world stage. Being part of the first women’s fight after female boxing was decriminalised in NSW in 2009. Why men are challenged by women’s boxing and how she responds to their comments. The Amateur Boxing Associations’ rule to mandate all female boxers to wear skirts (and then being told that she was distracting judges by wearing a skirt). Competing at the 2014 & 2018 Commonwealth Games and preparing the upcoming games in Birmingham . The decision to go pro. And why she hates people commenting on her age
Driving through the desert at 200km/h isn’t a sport for the faint hearted. Molly Taylor swapped equestrian for rally car driving as a teenager, and since then she has become the World Champion, Australian Champion, European Ladies Champion an d British Ladies’ Champion in the sport, she won the 2021 Extreme-E Championship and finished the iconic Dakar Rally, racing 8000km through the Saudi Arabian desert, earlier this year. Molly sits down with host Sam Squiers to discuss: Learning from her Mum, who was a four-time Australian champion co-driver. What rally car driving actually involves and the complex language shared between driver and co-driver. The challenges of competing in Europe in the early days. Getting the call to compete in the Extreme E Championship from former Formula One World Champion, Nico Rosberg. And the reality of competing in the Dakar Rally for 14 days in the desert.
Mianne Bagger was the first transgender woman to play competitive golf in Australia. She successfully lobbied major golf tours around the world to allow transgender women to play, paving the way for herself and other trans women to compete in the sport. Mianne joins host Sam Squiers to discuss: the inner turmoil that pushed her to transition, the impact transitioning had on her game, competing in the Women’s Australian Open and the Ladies European Tour and the acceptance of trans women in sport.
A meteoric rise to fame gave retired Hockeyroo, Anna Flanagan, even further to fall. Anna first represented Australia when she was 17 and she had 50 caps to her name by the time she competed in the London Olympics when she was only 20. But behind the scenes, Anna was battling with eating disorders and alcohol addiction. Anna joins host Sam Squiers to discuss: Growing up with undiagnosed ADHD, how she attracted big name sponsorships including Red Bull and Nike, her struggle with eating disorders why no one noticed she was losing weight, how her drinking spiralled into alcoholism, forcing her out of the sport.
Riding the professional cycling circuit through some of the most picturesque places in the world looks like a dream life. But the reality of pay inequality and being taken seriously as a female athlete is far less glamorous.
Tiffany joins host Sam Squiers to discuss: The talent ID program that got her into cycling in high school, Why she can still have a successful race even if she’s not on the podium, The growth of women’s cycling and the upcoming women’s Tour de France and Meeting her partner, Finnish F1 driver Valtteri Bottas, how she started designing helmets for him and why it’s not uncommon to see him on the side of the road handing out water bottles to her teammates
Superstar of Australian swimming, Bronte Campbell, dreamed of being an Olympic champion since she was 7 years old. Bronte made the national Dolphins team when she was 17 and has retained her place for the past ten years and three Olympics.
In that time, Bronte has won gold at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Pan Pacific Championships and at the Tokyo Games she was part of the team that broke the women’s 4x100m freestyle record.
Bronte joins host Sam Squiers to discuss growing up in Malawi before relocating to Brisbane as a 7-year-old, what she’s learned from growing up with her younger brother Hamish who has cerebral palsy, the constant comparison to her older sister Cate, overcoming chronic pain to swim a career-best at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the culture of swimming in light of the recent review into the sport.
Before Tallisha Harden represented Australia in three sports, she was a self-confessed book nerd who played in the school brass band and was better at ten pin bowling than ball sports.
Growing up, Tallisha suffered from chronic middle ear infections which meant she stayed on the sidelines of most sports. But she was tall, so when a teacher picked her out to join the local volleyball team, Tallisha said yes, unknowingly starting her career in sport.
Tallisha represented Australia in volleyball and Rugby 7’s before switching to rugby league where she’s at the top of her game as a Jillaroo and Brisbane Bronco in the NRLW.
Tallisha joins host Sam Squiers to discuss growing up in Woodridge in Brisbane’s Logan area, how she educated herself about her Indigenous culture, her passion for speech pathology and what she wants the future to look like for the NRLW.
When officials told Alex Blackwell that being gay created an “image problem” for her sport, she refused to hide or back down.
Instead, by standing up as a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, Alex has changed the game for women in sport.
On the field Alex set the record for the most number of games played by an Australian woman, which was only recently surpassed by Ellyse Perry. She is an Ashes and World Cup winning captain and the inaugural captain of the Sydney Thunder WBBL side.
Alex joins host Sam Squiers to discuss growing up idolising cricket legend Belinda Clarke before ending up as her teammate, the changes she’s seen cricket go through in its attitude towards female and LGBTQIA+ players and whether being gay held her back from leadership positions.
Sliding head first down an ice track at speeds of up to 140km/h is just part of the job for Winter Olympian Jackie Narracott. Over the past decade, Jackie has self-funded over $90,000 to train and compete in skeleton. The result? She just became the first Australian to win a World Cup gold medal in any sliding sport.
Growing up, Jackie dreamed of being an Olympian. Her uncle Paul was the first Australian to compete at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and Jackie was committed to following in his footsteps in athletics. But a chance meeting at a training session led Jackie into winter sports instead.
Jackie joins host Sam Squiers days before the Beijing Games to discuss why she swapped the athletics track for bobsled and bobsled for skeleton, recovering from the concussion that made her question her future in the sport and how she’s made a career for herself without consistent funding or a coach.
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