Athlete, Actually

Nicole Mendes had always dreamed of the Olympics.In 2021, she got there - representing Team Mexico, making history, and winning the country’s first-ever Olympic softball game. From the outside, it looked like everything she had worked toward.Inside the experience, it was more complicated.Between fundraising to afford the opportunity, navigating a difficult coaching dynamic, and competing in an empty stadium during COVID, the reality didn’t always match the expectation. At times, it felt both incredible and incredibly hard to hold at the same time.What stayed constant was the group around her. The teammates who showed resilience, composure, and strength in moments where none of it was guaranteed.After the Olympics, a different challenge set in: figuring out what comes next when the goals you’ve chased your entire life are suddenly complete. That transition reshaped how Nicole thinks about identity, success, and what it means to build a life beyond a single path.This episode is presented in partnership with DNA Vibe and Sport Certified, powered by iHerb.DNA Vibe is leading the way in recovery and performance technology, helping athletes stay ready to perform at their highest level.Learn more: https://dnavibe.com/recoverySport Certified, powered by iHerb, gives athletes access to high-quality, trusted supplements designed to support performance, recovery, and overall health.Shop Sport Certified: https://sportcertified.com If you want to support Athlete, Actually, supporting the brands that make these conversations possible is a great place to start.New episodes of Athlete, Actually drop every Tuesday. Follow along @ParityNow for more stories, clips, and insights from women athletes.https://www.instagram.com/paritynowhttps://www.instagram.com/elizabethmontavonhttps://www.paritynow.comListen wherever you get your podcasts:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trailer-athlete-actually-a-new-kind-of-womens/id1893498453?i=1000761422362 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4MjY1rXYAn7V0K9l9O6Slw?si=972814f905904d22 Athlete, Actually is a Parity production.#AthleteActually#womenssports#sportsstories#athletelife#olympics#teammexico#softball#womenssoftball#athletejourney#mentalresilience#sportsmindset#identityinsports#lifeaftersports#proathlete

Taylor Heise thought she was ready for the moment. In 2022, after years of building toward the Olympics, she entered tryouts expecting to make the team. Instead, she was one of the final cuts. No injury, no clear explanation - just a week where nothing clicked, and a result she hadn’t experienced before.She went home, exhausted, unsure of what came next. For the first time, the path she had mapped out since she was a kid didn’t hold.What followed wasn’t immediate clarity. It was a reset. Time away, honest conversations, and a decision about how she wanted to respond, not to prove anything to anyone else, but to get back to herself.Over the next year, that shift showed up everywhere. In how she trained, how she handled pressure, and how she defined success. By 2026, she wasn’t just back - she was an Olympic gold medalist, the first overall draft pick in the PWHL, and a key part of a championship team.Looking back, the moment she didn’t make the team became part of the reason she eventually did.This episode is presented in partnership with DNA Vibe and Sport Certified, powered by iHerb.DNA Vibe is leading the way in recovery and performance technology, helping athletes stay ready to perform at their highest level.Learn more: https://dnavibe.com/recoverySport Certified, powered by iHerb, gives athletes access to high-quality, trusted supplements designed to support performance, recovery, and overall health.Shop Sport Certified: https://sportcertified.com If you want to support Athlete, Actually, supporting the brands that make these conversations possible is a great place to start.New episodes of Athlete, Actually drop every Tuesday. Follow along @ParityNow for more stories, clips, and insights from women athletes.https://www.instagram.com/paritynowhttps://www.instagram.com/elizabethmontavonhttps://www.paritynow.comAthlete, Actually is a Parity production.#AthleteActually#womenssports#sportsstories#athletelife#comebackstory#sportsmindset#mentalresilience#highperformance#pressureisaprivilege#hockey#womenshockey#pwhl#olympics#teamusa#proathlete

Dara Mabrey’s final college season ended on a play she’s made countless times. An open layup, no real contact - then something felt off in a way she couldn’t explain.At first, it was treated like a routine knee injury. By the next day, that explanation stopped holding. The scans showed fractures, structural damage, and a recovery timeline that immediately became unclear. Then came another turn: a blood clot, something no one expected at her age.Part of what made it so dangerous wasn’t just the injury itself, but the overlap of factors that hadn’t been part of the conversation, specifically, how birth control can interact with trauma like this in the body. It’s something Dara hadn’t been warned about, and something medical teams are now starting to take more seriously because of cases like hers.She remembers how quickly everything shifted. The loss of control. The feeling of not recognizing her own body. The question of what was left when the one thing she’d always relied on was taken away.Now playing professionally overseas, she’s rebuilt her career piece by piece. The game didn’t change, but her awareness of it did, and so did her understanding of what female athletes are navigating behind the scenes.This episode is presented in partnership with DNA Vibe and Sport Certified, powered by iHerb.DNA Vibe is leading the way in recovery and performance technology, helping athletes stay ready to perform at their highest level.Learn more: https://dnavibe.com/recoverySport Certified, powered by iHerb, gives athletes access to high-quality, trusted supplements designed to support performance, recovery, and overall health.Shop Sport Certified: https://sportcertified.com If you want to support Athlete, Actually, supporting the brands that make these conversations possible is a great place to start.New episodes of Athlete, Actually drop every Tuesday. Follow along @ParityNow for more stories, clips, and insights from women athletes.https://www.instagram.com/paritynowhttps://www.instagram.com/elizabethmontavonhttps://www.paritynow.comAthlete, Actually is a Parity production.#AthleteActually#womenssports#sportsstories#athletelife#comebackstory#sportsinjury#aclrecovery#athletemindset#mentalresilience#womenshealthinsports#sportsmedicine#injuryrecovery#basketball#overseasbasketball#proathlete

When people think about athletes, they picture performance. Highlights. Outcomes.But there’s a whole layer of the story that rarely gets told — the decisions, the pressure, the uncertainty, and everything that happens outside of competition.Athlete, Actually starts with a different question: what’s the story no one’s ever asked you about?Hosted by Elizabeth Montavon, a professional athlete and marketing strategist, this show brings you inside the real experiences shaping women in sports today. From career-defining moments to the ones that almost went unseen, these conversations go deeper than the version you usually hear.New episodes feature athletes from across sports, sharing stories that go beyond performance, into identity, resilience, business, and what it actually takes to build a career at the highest level.This episode is presented in partnership with DNA Vibe and Sport Certified, powered by iHerb.DNA Vibe is leading the way in recovery and performance technology, helping athletes stay ready to perform at their highest level. Learn more: https://dnavibe.com Sport Certified, powered by iHerb, gives athletes access to high-quality, trusted supplements designed to support performance, recovery, and overall health. Shop Sport Certified: https://sportcertified.com/recovery If you want to support Athlete, Actually, supporting the brands that make these conversations possible is a great place to start.New episodes of Athlete, Actually drop every Tuesday. Follow along @ParityNow for more stories, clips, and insights from women athletes.https://www.instagram.com/paritynowhttps://www.instagram.com/elizabethmontavonhttps://www.paritynow.comAthlete, Actually is a Parity production.