PURPOSE | At 20 years old snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick thought she would never pick up a snowboard again. The sport that had been her life, her career as a pro snowboarder out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado had wrecked her, ruined her, and left her wondering what on earth to do with herself as someone who spent very little of her adolescent years in the ‘regular’ world. She became a plumber, then a coach to little kids to get a free ski pass, and finally a developmental coach to the next-gen of up-and-coming snowboarders. This episode validates the trauma that all-too-often occurs within teenage sport prodigies, we walk through the process of healing, and the ultimate comeback. This PowHERful Podcast is for anyone who’s been hurt in the past who so desperately wants to rewire that pain into purpose. For Maddy it’s led her to her very first Olympic Games. Where could it lead you?

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CALM | Skeleton racer Mystique Ro has officially locked in her spot for Team USA and is heading to her first Olympics! In this [BEST OF] episode, get to know the daughter who grew up as one of the oldest of 11, how that chaos led her to an individual sport she calls her “kernel of chaos,” and what she’s learned from the trail blazers who came before her about creating a legacy that’s lasting in this episode of The PowHERful Podcast.

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ADAPTABILITY | Sophia Kirkby is making her Olympic debut, along with her sport of women’s doubles luge, in large part thanks to her ability to adapt. She started luge at 7, but switched to doubles in her early 20s. Her father, her biggest cheerleader and the man who got her into the sport, passed away, now she carries his words on her gloves on race days. This episode is for those who’ve loved and lost, who’ve chased a dream with relentless abandon, and who move through life with intention and the confidence that they can handle whatever comes their way. If that’s you - you’ll find camaraderie here with Kirkby, whose handmade pins and desire for a dating life in Cortina add a fun twist to her Olympic journey. If that isn’t you, but you hope to be one day - in this episode you’ll find the example of the type of vulnerability and strength it takes to develop that adaptability.

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FEAR | In this [BEST OF] Episode of The PowHERful Podcast, AJ McCord sits down with Olympic Great British free skier Zoe Atkin. The Stanford student is entering the 2026 Winter Olympics as one of the top contenders to bring home a gold medal in free ski halfpipe. In this episode she gets vulnerable about her relationship with fear and how one psychology class at Stanford changed the way she approached the fear that would sometimes leave her paralyzed at the top of the pipe. She takes us to school, sharing the ways she’s able to overcome and process it and, spoiler alert, they’re ways we took can tackle fear in our everyday lives.

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OPTIMISM | At first Anna Gibson thought the idea of joining Team USA’s ski mountaineering training camp was a bit ridiculous. She’s a professional trail and track runner, and diverting into ski mountaineering, a sport that will make its Olympic debut in Milan-Cortina, wasn’t in her 2025 plans. But then she asked the question ‘what if?’ and had the courage to look at the positive possibilities. Instead of focusing on what if it didn’t work out, she leaned into the belief that what if it did? The result: she’s an Olympian, and will represent Team USA in skimo in Italy. This episode is for anyone who’s also wondered ‘what if’ when considering a change, a career move, a new city, a new hobby, and shows what’s possible when you choose to chase it.

For more on the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, follow @ThePowHERful on Instagram!

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As women’s sports continue to rise, women’s surfing isn’t just riding the wave — they’re leading it. Lakey Peterson, a veteran of the World Surf League Championship Tour, represents a pivotal generation of female trailblazers. She recalls a time when winning a contest earned her $15,000, while the male winner of the same event took home $100,000. Since then, she’s witnessed the league evolve, achieving equal prize money, combined tours, and better waves.

For Peterson, embracing these changes later in her career has been both a challenge and an opportunity. On this episode of the PowHERful Podcast, she shares how she’s adapted, where she draws the perseverance to keep pushing forward, and her vision for the future of women’s surfing.

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Picking yourself back up after a fall is never easy but it’s something competitive mountain biker Jess Blewitt knows how to do all too well. When you look at her last few years it would be so easy to focus on the injuries, but that is far from what the first ever female entrant to Red Bull Hardline has done. Instead she shares a lesson about the power of presence and managing fear in a world where we're constantly told if we're not moving, not performing, we're falling behind.

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This episode of The PowHERful Podcast is brought to you by Mophie – Go to mophie.com to find the perfect solution to keep you powered up for everything you need

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Paris 2024 marked another meaningful step forward for equality in Paralympic sport, but the work is far from over. As winter Paralympians look ahead to their own moment on the world stage in Italy, they’re also bracing for the all-too-familiar media narratives that often reduce their complex journeys to a single moment or medal.

In this episode, 2x Paralympian Dani Aravich joins us to unpack what it means to shift the lens. Through her work with Culxtred, the athlete-led storytelling platform she co-founded with fellow PowHERful guest Brenna Huckaby, Dani is challenging the way we talk about adaptive athletes.

Together, we explore how curiosity, empathy, and deeper storytelling can transform the way we see all athletes, not just as competitors, but as whole human beings.

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