Unrivaled 1-on-1 tourney was 1 of 1 🏀

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"My entire WNBA salary is what I just got in 30 minutes of playing one-on-one."

- Napheesa Collier, after winning $200,000 in the first-ever Unrivaled 1-on-1 tournament. The check was the biggest ever one-day prize in the history of women’s basketball, said Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler

Three big stories to know this week in women's sports

1. Gracey Hemstreet wins Red Bull Hardline Tasmania 👑

Last week saw mountain bikers face off for Red Bull Hardline, a gnarly downhill showdown at Maydena Bike Park in Tasmania, Australia. The invite-only event featured huge air (step-ups! a wall stall! a 60-foot gap jump 😱!) linked by sections of high-accuracy tech during a 1.8-mile run.

As a testament to the difficulty of the event, only three women in its history have ever finished a full top-to-bottom run, and only one of them has done it twice — Gracey Hemstreet. The Canadian rider was the only woman to line up for the final on Sunday. (Seven women participated in the prelim rounds but did not qualify for the finals; current junior DH world champ Erice van Leuven qualified, but bowed out thanks to a hard crash in warm ups that left her with multiple broken bones, including her back.) Hemstreet finished 21st overall, notching the women’s W with an impressive 4:06.465 run time.

"It was just what I wanted to do; be smooth and just have fun," she told Red Bull.

This is the second year for the Tasmania edition of the race — the original has been held in Wales since 2014.

(Photo: Dan Griffiths)

2. American women + Alpine Ski World Championships = 💪🏅🇺🇸

U.S. women had a stellar run at Alpine Ski World Champs over the past week and a half of competition. The performance showed the overall strength of the American squad, with medals in four out of the five women’s events.🏅

“I don’t remember during the time that I’ve been skiing having this much depth,” Mikaela Shriffin said after this year’s competition. “It’s been incredible to watch that build over the years and kind of culminating this world championships. And I hope it continues to build over the next year and the next several years.”

A quick performance recap:

Giant slalom: American Paula Moltzan notched bronze, 2.62 seconds behind winner Federica Brignone of Italy, who recorded the fastest time on course in both of her runs. Moltzan’s slow second run made for a nail-biting finish, as she held on to her medal just 0.01 seconds ahead of fourth place.
Slalom: The slalom was the only event where American women finished outside the medals. But the race was tight—Moltzan placed fourth, with Mikaela Shiffrin in fifth, two hundredths and five hundredths away from the podium, respectively.
Super G: In her first-ever world championships start, Lauren Macuga tied for third with Kajsa Vicoff Lie of Norway. Fighting back from a slow middle of her race, she gained time in the last section to land on the podium.
Downhill: Breezy Johnson took home gold—her first world championship title. She reached speeds of 86mph and sailed 38 yards through the air to take the title by 0.15 seconds.
Women’s Team Combined: Johnson and Shiffrin combined forces to win the first-ever edition of this race, which combines downhill and slalom runs. Johnson was fourth in the downhill, with Shiffrin third in the slalom—their combined time put them 0.39 seconds ahead of the next-closest team, from Switzerland.

3. Bird, Azzi, Fowles, and more on the short list for the 2025 basketball HOF

Five women finalists have been named for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2025: Jennifer Azzi, Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Maya Moore, and Molly Bolin.

These players are recognized for their excellence in sport, and the indelible mark they’ve left on the game, says Jerry Colangelo, the hall of fame’s chairman. "This recognition goes beyond statistics and accolades—it honors those who have defined eras, inspired generations, and elevated basketball through their talent, leadership, and dedication.”

Nominees are chosen by a screening committee, which then votes on who will be confirmed. The inductees will be officially announced on April 5th, during the NCAA Final Four in San Antonio, with a ceremony in their honor slated for September.

A quick rundown of the ways this year’s finalists have shaped the game:

Jennifer Azzi: Led Stanford to a 1990 national championship, garnering the tournament’s “Most Outstanding Player” title. She won a gold medal with Team USA in the 1996 Olympics, and co-founded the American Basketball League (a women’s league founded a few months before the WNBA) before going on to play in the WNBA.
Sue Bird: Widely considered one of the greatest players in WNBA history, Bird played 21 seasons with the Seattle Storm. She’s a record 13-time All-Star and four-time WNBA champion with five Olympic gold medals. She was also a two-time NCAA national champ with UConn, winning multiple collegiate Player of the Year honors in 2002.
Sylvia Fowles: The 2015 and 2017 WNBA MVP, Fowles retired after a 15-year career with the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx as the league’s all-time leading rebounder (4,007), with a career average of 15.7 points and 9.8 rebounds. She’s also won four Olympic golds.
Maya Moore: A four-time WNBA champion with the Minnesota Lynx, Moore was named one of the 25 greatest players in league history during the WNBA’s W25 celebration in 2021. In 2019, she announced that she would be taking a hiatus from basketball in order to focus on criminal justice reform.
Molly Bolin: Also known as “Machine Gun Molly,” Bolin starred in the first pro women’s league in the U.S., the Women’s Professional Basketball League, starting in the 1979–1980 season. She held records for the most points scored in a single game (55) and highest single-season scoring average (32.8). She’s nominated as part of the Women’s Veteran Committee, which honors players 35+ years past retirement.

Tip of the week

🚩 Frequent mirror checks

🚩 Comments from teammates and parents
🚩 Feeling the need to “earn” food

These are all common red flags of disordered eating, which can be incredibly damaging and dangerous for young athletes. To help protect them, parents and coaches need to be aware of the warning signs, and what to do to help.

In the first episode of a new three-part series from Feisty, hosts Sara Gross and Jill Colangelo explore eating disorders among young female athletes. They speak with experts in the field, including Stephanie Roth-Goldberg, LCSW, CEDS-C, a psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders and athletes, and Sarah Naticchia, a Harvard-trained athlete who shares her struggles with disordered eating in high school and college.

Together, they discuss the pressures young athletes face, the need for a cultural shift toward health over aesthetics, and how parents can support their children by focusing on well-being and performance rather than appearance.

The highlight reel

Toronto Sceptres forward and league MVP Natalie Spooner made her return to the PWHL tuesday, nine months after tearing her ACL during a game against the Minnesota Frost. In a full-circle moment, her first game back found her pitted against the same team; she logged 21 minutes of play and tallied an assist for a 3-2 OT victory.
Zara Lachlan, 21, made history when she became both the youngest person and the first woman to row solo, unassisted, and non-stop from mainland Europe to South America. 🚣The journey took her 97 days, 9 hours, and 20 minutes. The most mind-blowing part? A year ago, Lachlan had never rowed a boat on the ocean. 🤯
Danish ultrarunner Stine Rex set a new treadmill world record by completing 382 kilometers (about 237 miles) in 48 hours. Her attempt benefitted Lykkeliga, a handball league for children and young people with developmental disabilities. It’s not her first eye-popping record—she also holds the title for the most miles run in six days (567.6)
🎗 Penn State volleyball coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who led the Nittany Lions to a 2024 NCAA championship while undergoing chemotherapy, has announced that she is officially cancer-free!
Demi Vollering duked it out with Marlen Reusser and Anna van der Breggen to win the four-day Valenciana stage race. 🚲 While not technically on the World Tour calendar, 13 of the 15 teams that competed are WorldTeams, making it an exciting predictor for the bigger races coming up in the next few weeks — notably, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this Saturday. 👀
Caitlin Simmers took the win — and the yellow Championship Tour leader’s jersey — at Surf Abu Dhabi Pro.
The new professional Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL) held its first games this week outside of Washington, D.C. Both games were close: New York Charging edged out Maryland Charm, 14-13, while California Palms bested Boston Guard, 16-15. The four-team league looks to level up the sport ahead of the 2028 Olympics, which will be the first time ever (!!) that women will compete in the event.
NCAA star Sedona Prince is facing allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse, with the most recent report made to police last month.
Olympic silver medalist Jaelin Kauf triumphed over tricky conditions to sweep the moguls and dual moguls wins at the Intermountain Health Freestyle International in Deer Valley, Utah. Warm and rainy weather caused the snow to melt and refreeze, creating a difficult skiing surface.
Amanda Anisimova nabbed her first WTA 1000 title when she beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-4 in the Qatar Open final. Anisimova took a break from the sport in 2023 to address burnout and mental health issues, but has continued to rise in the rankings since her return to the sport. She’s now ranked 18th worldwide — her first time in the top 20.
A moving 2023 series of portraits by Ebrahim Noroozi is making the rounds on social media, showing Afghan women posing with the equipment for the sports they love, but can no longer participate in after the Taliban banned women’s sports in September 2021.
Cleveland is likely the home of the next WNBA franchise, according to the Sports Business Journal. While nothing’s official yet, word on the street is that the city bid a league-record $250 million for the opportunity. Keep your ears open for an announcement within the next month or so.

Your Feisty recommendations

📺 What to watch: "Win or Lose,” Pixar’s first-ever long-form animated series, follows a softball team in the lead-up to their championship game. Available February 19th on Disney+

📚 What to read: How to crush your gravel goals—no matter what your hormones are doing

🎧 What to listen to: Our newest Women's Performance podcast episode – “You’re the only person on the team who doesn’t have a six pack. What’s going on?” How body image can affect young female athletes

😆 What made us laugh: The U.S. moguls team performs the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders’ “Thunderstruck” routine — in ski boots, natch