Hear Her Sports

Vanese Barnes is a 2023 Women’s Sports Foundation Tara VanDerveer fellow with Tufts University Women’s Basketball team. At the same time Vanese was a part of a two-year Future Leaders Fellowship program at Tufts, where she earned her master's degree in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership within the Tufts Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in addition to her coaching duties. In 2

Mary Ellen Kelly is credentialed as a registered dietitian and board-certified sports dietitian. She holds a Bachelor of Science in nutrition from Boston University, where she was a 4-year member of the NCAA Division 1 varsity women’s track and field team. She earned her master’s degree in clinical nutrition from New York University and completed her clinical training at the Ja

AJ Hurt's passion for skiing and ski racing began at a very early age. Growing up in North Lake Tahoe, Palisades Tahoe was her winter playground. At four years old, she entered the Team Palisades Tahoe and fell in love with the sport. With a father who has been a member of the Squaw Valley Ski Patrol for the past 30 years, Hurt was raised a true member of the Palisades Tahoe (forme

Beth Rodden is one of the best female rock climbers of all time, and a globally recognized ambassador for the outdoor community. She has achieved a number of notable free climbs on El Capitan, the 3,000-foot monolith in Yosemite National Park, and has also established the hardest first ascent of a crack climb ever done by a woman. She has been climbing for thirty years, and she hop

Sydney Palmer-Leger is one of the young cross country ski racers on the US National B team. She made a quick trip to Falun, Sweden for the season finale, where she skied to her best-ever World Cup result -- a 23rd place. Right before Falun, Sydney capped off a stellar collegiate career with a victory at the NCAA National Championships in Steamboat, Springs Colorado. Sydney is a thr

Kendra Coleman is a professional track and field athlete sponsored by Oiselle. She is currently focused on the Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugen, Oregon June 21-30, 2024, where she will compete in the 800. Her top accomplishments include her Highschool UIL State Championship in the 400 meters and a 9th place finish at 2016 Olympic Trials in the 800 meters. Kendra is also the Se

Ski Coach, Julia Hayes grew up skiing, running, cycling, climbing, and hiking in Frisco, Colorado. She attended and cross country ski raced for Montana State University, graduating with a degree in exercise physiology. She has been coaching with Bridger Ski Foundation for five years, where she works with high school/early college age skiers. In 2023, she earned the opportunity to c

Wang Ping is a poet, writer, photographer, installation artist, founder and director of Kinship of Rivers project. Her multi-media exhibitions include “Kinship of Rivers: We Are Water,” “Behind the Gate: After the Flood of the Three Gorges,” and hundreds of other installation exhibitions at schools, colleges, galleries, museums, lock and dams, confluences around the world,

Leann Bentley is the Press Officer/Attaché for the Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team and Communications Manager at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Based in Park City, Utah, Leann has been with the team for almost two years and is inspired daily by the incredible athletes and staff, pushing her to keep raising the bar and doing what she can to elevate the sport and athletes to new levels. O

Kristen Bourne has coached cross country skiing at the collegiate and professional level for the past four years. She was the assistant coach at The College of Saint Scholastica for two years where she was a 2021 Women’s Sports Foundation Tara VanDerveer Fellow. During the summer, she was an assistant coach with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project professional team in Vermont. Pr