FIRST ON FOX: Two formidable feminine athletes are becoming a member of forces to share tales with kids of the struggle to defend alternatives for women in sports.
Former College of Kentucky swimming star Riley Gaines, an Outkick contributor, in addition to skilled surfer Bethany Hamilton are internet hosting a kids’s story hour that includes their inspirational new titles from Courageous Books at The Library Middle in Springfield, Missouri, on Feb. 2.
“Together our message is stronger,” Gaines, host of Outkick’s “Gaines for Girls” podcast, advised Fox Information Digital.
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“We’re drawing a clean line in the sand to show people where we stand,” she stated.
The 2 watersports stars turned high-profile champions of girls’s sports activities after talking up in opposition to the sudden incursion of organic males into feminine competitions.
Sports activities stars Riley Gaines (left) and Bethany Hamilton have develop into leaders within the struggle to guard ladies’s sports activities from the incursion of male opponents. (Courtesy Courageous Books)
However they’ve confronted a tidal wave of hate and intolerance, plus career hardships, in response to their efforts to protect alternatives for ladies in sports activities that had been denied to these of previous generations.
“People have wished death upon my life,” Hamilton advised Fox Information Digital in a cellphone interview from the distant Hawaiian island of Kauai.
“People have wished death upon my life. It makes you sad that society can be so gnarly.” — Bethany Hamilton
“It makes you sad that society can be so gnarly,” she added.
Hamilton earned acclaim as one of many world’s most profitable surfers, regardless of dropping her left arm throughout a shark attack in 2003 when she was simply 13 years previous.
Now she’s earned the ire of cancel culture after she gave up her profession in Feb. 2023 to protest the World Surf League’s resolution to permit males to compete in ladies’s competitions.
Legendary surfer Bethany Hamilton wrote the youngsters’s title “Surfing Past Fear,” printed by Courageous Books. Hamilton turned one in all America’s most well-known surfers regardless of dropping her left arm in a shark assault at age 13. (Courtesy Courageous Books)
“Men’s and women’s bodies are created differently, and we have different strengths and weaknesses no matter how hard we try,” stated Hamilton, who just lately welcomed her fourth little one.
“It’s not fair and I can’t support it,” she stated of males competing in ladies’s sports activities competitions. “I need to stand up for the next generation of girls pushing surfing forward. I want the best for them.”
She’s misplaced sponsors, is going through a boycott over a talking engagement in Wisconsin subsequent month and has suffered ruthless private assaults, with a number of individuals shamelessly alluding to the lack of her arm.
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“Damn u sure u got two legs to stand on for this?” reads one acidic assault posted on her Instagram web page.
“Nice that they let you compete despite your intellectual disability,” posted one other follower.
Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer, turned an outspoken champion for ladies in sports activities after she was pressured to compete in opposition to, and to share a locker room with, male swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022.
Riley Gaines, an Outkick contributor and former College of Kentucky swimming star, is the creator of the brand new kids’s title “Happy No Snakes Day” from writer Courageous Books. (Courtesy Courageous Books)
They share their classes of willpower within the face of adversity in new children’s titles from Courageous Books.
Gaines wrote “Happy No Snakes Day,” during which squirrels face an ethical dilemma when threatened by snakes.
The e-book provides kids a lesson in standing up for reality irrespective of the implications.
“Surfing Past Fear” is Hamilton’s story of an otter named Olivia who breaks her arm but overcomes her anxieties with the assistance of mates and returns to browsing.
It’s primarily based on Hamilton’s personal exceptional real-life story of overcoming the lack of her arm as a teenage browsing prodigy.
“Together we can teach future generations to stand up for themselves and to stand up for what’s right.”
“I was pretty hard to beat,” as a young person, the soft-spoken Hamilton stated.
Along with overcoming the bodily and psychological trauma, she needed to be taught new methods to swim, paddle and stability on the board.
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“I was winning again a year or two after I lost my arm,” she stated, whereas changing into one of the vital profitable surfers in historical past, a multimedia star and now the mom of 4 kids.
Gaines and Hamilton will meet for the primary time in particular person on the story hour in Missouri. But it surely seems they impressed one another at the same time as strangers.
Former College of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, left, an Outkick contributor, plus professional surfer Bethany Hamilton are preventing to protect alternatives for ladies in sports activities and have just lately written inspirational kids’s books. They’re internet hosting a Courageous Books story hour on Feb. 2, 2024 in Springfield, Missouri. (Courtesy Courageous Books)
“I’ve known about the Bethany mythology for a long time,” stated Gaines, including that she was in fifth grade when she noticed Hamilton’s 2011 feature film “Soul Surfer” within the theater.
“We thought it was the coolest thing,” added Gaines.
Gaines was already an outspoken chief targeted on preserving alternatives for ladies in sports activities when Hamilton made her resolution to depart browsing.
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The ladies hope their new partnership can encourage girls and boys to try for achievement in sports activities, but additionally in faith and life.
“Together we can teach future generations to stand up for themselves and to stand up for what’s right,” stated Gaines.
“To stand up for the truth.”
For extra data, anybody can go to bravebooks.us.
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