IF SHE CAN SEE IT, SHE CAN BE IT

A Conversation with Kate Courtney

Corinne sat down with Kate to chat about the She Sends Foundation.  Highlights include: role models, feeling the emotion of a dream, gifts of mountain biking, and joy as a superpower!

THE CLIMB

Corinne: Tell us a little bit about your journey as a cyclist.

Kate: I grew up in Marin County, which is known as the birthplace of mountain biking so I had a lot of exposure, not just to the bike, but to being outside and moving my body growing up. 

As a competitor, I found that mountain biking was a unique sport with all of these different elements and it felt like the kind of sport that you could spend your life trying to get better at - between technical, tactical, mental and physical performance.

I really fell in love with the sport and raced throughout high school. Later, I competed in my first World Cups as a Junior before moving on to college and getting the opportunity to race for a pro team.  Eventually, when I graduated college in 2017, I was able to make it my full-time career and I've been racing pretty much exclusively on the World Cup circuit since then.

ON ROLE MODELS

Corinne: When you started, who were your role models, what did women’s mountain bike racing look like?

Kate: One major memory for me was watching Georgia win that bronze medal at my First World Championships. I was 16 years old. It was in Austria and I was on the sidelines and they played born in the USA when she crossed the finish line and I just remember that being a really formative, inspiring moment for me where it did feel possible, and not only did it feel possible, but it was a moment that felt like it held the emotion of a dream.

Corinne: You have so much to offer, and there are so many iconic racers out there that have maintained top tier results throughout their entire career. Who's someone like that for you that sets an example?

Kate: I had really amazing role models in the sport, including Lea Davidson, a Vermonter. I traveled and raced as teammates with Lea for five or six years when we were on the Specialized team together. At the time for me, it felt normal but in hindsight, Lea really stepped into that role as my mentor in a way that she didn't have to. 

For me, I got to see her approach and how she made mountain biking a career. I don't think it would have been the same had I been alone on that team, It had a big impact on me.

Corinne: Enter scene... She Sends.
 
Kate: As I contemplated my dreams for the future of the sport of mountain biking I wanted to find a way to connect this storytelling, attention and value that we generate through racing more towards this mission and purpose to inspire women and girls through cycling.

I think mountain biking can be a really great tool to empower and encourage women and girls to take risks and go big.  It's a lifelong sport and one that you can take in many different directions. It can be a competitive outlet but it can also serve as a way to stay in shape, connect socially or face fears and challenges in an environment that translates well to other areas of life.

We want to empower and support grassroots efforts being made by women to get more girls on bikes. They know what their community needs best, so for me to be able to support them in a way that benefits from the visibility we get in racing feels like there's serious potential to empower a lot of women in the sport.

Corinne: What is the mission of She Sends?

Kate: We operate on three pillars, which are development, diversity, and dominance.

Development is focused on getting more girls on bikes. That pillar is supported in part through our biggest partnership with NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) which was our first big partnership. We gave them a grant the past two years to support their coaching seminars, skills clinics etc. Working with them was a light bulb moment for me. I realized if we can really channel these funds to the right places, we can make a huge difference with a small amount of money.

Through the diversity pillar, we're partnering with Little Bellas again this year on a different project helping fund an inner city program where they bring Little Bellas into some bigger cities where access to cycling is more limited. Our goal through supporting this program is to provide funding to get as many girls as possible to be able to participate in the program cost free. 

Within the dominance pillar we just launched our first direct athlete support grant program which is a partnership with Strava. Through our “Strive for More” grant program we will provide grants to U23 female off road athletes to help cover the rising costs of equipment, training, and race travel. Whether it's someone who dreams of being on the World Cup or racing lifetime Grand Prix or doing Red Bull rampage or racing enduro, we wanted to start a support program that helps keep those dreams alive.

Cycling can be empowering at any level but I do think it's really valuable to see athletes striving at the top level. I would say by and large the majority of what we do is less competitively oriented and is more about exposing girls to the bike and letting them take that where they want. That said, I'm really excited to bring the competitive side of the sport into this because I think it's a really important part of continuing to help people dream big.

EMPOWERING WOMEN ON BIKES
           
Corinne: I love the way you put the umbrella around off-road adventure-oriented disciplines.  When you think about that type of biking, especially in a group setting, how do you think that contributes to the development and empowerment of young women?

 Kate: In a number of ways. First, there’s just something about being out, moving your body in nature and especially in a world where it's hard to manage how much time we spend on screens. I think having something that pulls you away from that where you can get lost and be out immersed in nature is something that I have found really valuable in my life.

Second, I think mountain biking is hard and that there’s actually huge value in leaning into that. One of the things that I want to do long term at She Sends is really highlight the value of pushing yourself and taking risks which is, of course, part of sending it.

I think that's a lot of what I get out of sport and what I see translates so well to school, to business, to life. Mountain biking builds the ability to meet yourself in a moment of challenge and to see what you're capable of. It allows you to go a little farther than you thought you could and learn to work with all of the emotions that come up when you are pushing your edge. 

I think it's also a really great way to form relationships. I find often those conversations out on the bike are quite deep and impactful and with a lot of these programs younger girls are out riding with female coaches and female mentors and are being exposed to good role models who can impart some wisdom or even just show you that there's a lot of different ways to show up in the world. That can be really impactful for young girls. 

 ON JOY!

Corinne: She Sends and Skida both celebrate participation as well as performance. How do you balance both of those ideals, both as an individual athlete and as the founder of an organization?
 
Kate: As an athlete, I think that's been a lifelong calibration process.

As a young athlete, joy was always my superpower and I do think I've had periods where I've tried to be more serious and intense and represent myself that way because that feels like what you have to do as a high performance athlete, but I think I've really seen in those moments that  zooming out and looking at the broader scope of my career that joy, that playfulness, that fun, that love of sport is really the fuel.

Corinne: Yeah, You're in the driver's seat to make that experience fun or serious - but it can be both.

Kate: Completely. Fun can obviously have multiple forms - there is type 1 and type 2 fun, and sometimes type 3.

It's not just the low bar fun that's enjoyable, there are multidimensional versions of fun, and I have always benefited most on my bike when I'm connected with the fact that I love what I'm doing and that goes for the foundation as well. 

We want to empower women to dream big and aim high and send it. 

THE FUTURE

Corinne: What goals and dreams do you have for She Sends in the future?
 
Kate: Really growing support is the biggest goal. The way that we work right now is we give grants primarily to grassroots organizations and then more recently, directly to support athletes. We want to continue to be able to say yes where those needs are, that’s a really big motivator for us. 

I also think continuing to provide a touchpoint for women to rally around. This collaboration is a great example of that, where women can support  a company that they hopefully love. They can buy a product that will be useful to them and is well made and will last for a really long time and then also be supporting this larger mission of She Sends. I think there's a lot more opportunity in the future to provide these fun touchpoints that hopefully motivate more women to keep riding.  💫