Ride the Wave, Build the Future

From fearless racing to foundational research, this week is all about momentum—on bikes, on tracks, and in sport systems. Let’s create the conditions where youth can thrive and talent can rise.

💛From the Ground Up

Investing in community, equity, and youth isn’t just a legacy—it’s a necessity.

Yes, we’re a day late, but it was worth it as we attended the the Glory Sports Summit. At the Summit, leaders echoed a call for big, bold decisions: to fix the pay-to-play system, to prioritize representation, and to build spaces that welcome every kid, not just the ones who can afford to play. But one thing stood out—amid talk of infrastructure, legacy, and fandom, few mentioned grassroots sport or physical activity in schools.

If we’re serious about the future of sport, we can’t skip the foundation. That means access to play, quality coaching, and supportive communities—starting with the youngest athletes, and reaching every identity. Not just the pipeline to pro, but playground to participation.

A big thank you to Roots for their support at the event and providing us with a seat to attend.

As we continue with a project all about asking sport leaders what amazing work they are doing, reach out to us if you have a story to share.

🎙️Strong Girl Talk Recap: Joy in Motion with Vanessa Hauswald

This week, Molly and Sasha had the pleasure of talking with Vanessa Hauswald—longtime educator, coach, and the consulting director for She Sends. The conversation centred on the importance of creating spaces where kids want to show up, where riding bikes isn’t about performance—it’s about joy, play, and community.

Vanessa’s insights remind us that if we want to keep girls in sport, we need to rethink the way we build sport environments. Instead of pressure, start with play. Instead of drills, start with belonging. Our job as coaches is to create a space for the magic to happen.

This episode is packed with wisdom, laughter, and actionable ideas for anyone working with youth. Whether you’re a coach, a parent, or someone just trying to make sport better, this one’s for you because when we normalize playing sports, instead of performing we create places thriving.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here

📚 Book Spotlight: Subtract by Leidy Klotz

This is one of those books I keep coming back to—because the idea is so simple, and so necessary: sometimes the best thing we can do is take something away.

In Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, Leidy Klotz challenges the default mindset of “more is better” and shows how subtraction—whether in sport, life, or problem-solving—is often the smarter, more effective path.

It’s a powerful reminder that in a world (and sport system) that loves to add, there’s strength in stepping back, removing clutter, and creating space for what really matters. Whether you’re an athlete, coach, or leader, this is a must-read to help rethink how we design training, recovery, and life. And maybe, just maybe, this is the advice I currently need in life.

Sometimes less really is more.

🧠 Research Spotlight

This week, we’re digging into “Participation patterns in talent development in youth sports” from Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. This paper offers a comprehensive look at how youth athletes navigate the sport system—and what it means for long-term development and retention. Spoiler: early specialization might not be doing us any favours.

I discovered this gem through Dr. Matthew J. Reeves’ brilliant Talent in Sport Substack, specifically his recent post: Why Early Specialisation Might Be Hurting Your Child’s Long-Term Sporting Future.

Here are the specific findings:
1. Senior world-class and national-class athletes had similar performance development until late adolescence and only diverged in early adulthood. The senior world-class athletes, compared to national-class counterparts, performed equivalent or less main-sport practice through the age interval. Therefore, childhood/adolescent multi-sport practice apparently had a delayed moderator effect via improved subsequent sport-specific efficiency of practice—i.e., performance improvement per practice amount. TL;DR - Late Bloomers Win Long-Term.

2. The greater later performance improvement was rather based on better sport-specific perceptual-motor skill development than physical development (speed, power, endurance). This suggests that the improved sport-specific efficiency of practice primarily rested on better perceptual-motor learning. TL;DR - Skill Over Speed.

3. The effect was not moderated by relatedness of an athlete's main sport with the other sports they played. TL;DR - Any Sport Helps.

🔍 And if you’re interested in evidence-based athlete tracking, don’t miss the Growth and Maturation Tracker created by Dr. Tommy Lundberg and his team. It’s an amazing tool that helps coaches and sport leaders better understand youth development beyond the scoreboard: gmtracker.app

Sports Highlights

Last week was one of my favourite weeks of summer. Women’s Giro. Men’s Tour de France. UCI Mountain Bike. Wimbledon. Diamond League Track. With a week filled with smoky skies, a pile of work, and a sore knee, I (Sasha) spent much of the time with the television on and sports chatter in the background.

🎾 History was made on Centre Court - Congratulations to Iga Świątek, who became the first Polish woman to win Wimbledon, adding another Grand Slam title to her growing legacy. Known for her grace, grit, and dominance on clay, Świątek continues to prove she’s just as powerful on grass. On the men’s side Jannik Sinner won, the first Italian man to win Wimbledon. Interestingly, both of these athletes served inadvertent ingestion doping bans in the last year. This makes me question, not their results, but the current doping system. How much money do we spend on cases like this instead of addressing the real challenges with doping?

🚲🩷💛 Pink, Power, and Potential at the Giro d’Italia Women - Elisa Longo Borghini conquered the Giro d’Italia Women with strength, strategy, and signature Italian flair. Across 8 grueling stages, she reminded the world what it means to race with both experience and heart. We’re also celebrating Canada’s Isabella Holmgren, who made her Giro debut and showed exactly why she’s one of the most exciting young cyclists in the world. Already a cyclocross and mountain bike world champion, Holmgren is now carving out her space on the road. As we watched the Giro Women’s, we questioned why it’s still called ‘The Tour de France’ instead of the ‘The Men’s Tour de France’? If we want to make systemic change and undo the years of historic harm and barriers than these are the questions we need to be asking.

🚵🏻‍♀️ 😮‍💨What. A. Ride. Sammie Maxwell shows what Grit Looks Like in Andorra at the next stop in the UCI Mountain Bike World Series. Maxwell delivered one of the most resilient performances we’ve seen all season. A flat tire. Two crashes. And still—she never gave up! Maxwell charged back through the field in the XCO race with a level of determination that defines champions. From adversity to victory, she reminded us: it’s not just about speed—it’s about heart.

🏃‍♀️ Femke Bol blazes in Monaco in her Herculis debut, Bol reminded us why she’s rewriting the future of the 400m hurdles. Clocking a world-leading 51.95, Bol didn’t just win—she broke one of the meet’s oldest records and distanced herself from legends like Dalilah Muhammad. It was smooth. It was strong. It was classic Bol—holding back just enough to unleash a fierce finish. And yup, another incoming gender equity question - anecdotally, it looks like the women are relegated to the secondary part of the Diamond League programs - why do we continue to do this. As Molly said so well last week on the introduction to Strong Girl Talk (5:16), if we want to create better systems we need to put the women’s program first and plan the men’s program around that.