Liu Jiayu’s nickname is ‘Birdie’. It’s what her friends and family call her, and she’s had a soaring career as a snowboard pioneer, inspiring an explosion in popularity of her sport and a brand new generation of Chinese boarders.

Madeleine (Maca) and Tanya are close friends who play for the Australian beach handball team. They both juggle full time jobs: Maca is a lawyer and Tanya a teacher. Tanya also has ulcerative colitis.

Six-time French National Champion Mae-Berenice Meite talks to Golden Skate about her motivated come-back after out for a torn Achilles tendon and the challenges that she faced.

Maé-Bérénice Méité is a 2x Olympian and 6x National Figure Skating Champion from France who is also an entrepreneur, artist, content creator, and so much more. She’s deeply passionate about sharing the behind-the-scenes realities of being a world-class athlete, including the challenges and struggles. Maé-Bérénice co-hosts our interviews in Flame Bearers: Pathways to Paris celebrating women from around the world seeking to compete in this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics. So, before we jump into those conversations, meet our rockstar new co-host, Maé-Bérénice.

Manasi Joshi is India’s current Para-badminton World Champion and BBC India’s Sportswoman of the year. One day on her way to work, a truck ran into Manasi; hours dragged on before she received treatment, and her leg eventually needed to be amputated.

Manasi Joshi has won 10 gold, 9 silver and 15 bronze medals at level 1 international tournaments. She’s a former World Champion (SL3), an engineer, an Arjuna award winner, Aspen Fellow, and has spoken at Harvard.

As Manasi approaches the Paris Paralympics, she’s feeling “stronger than ever.” That said, she’s pauses to flag HOW she hopes journalists and the media should talk about her, or rather how they shouldn’t. She shares, “I don’t want to be called inspirational because I happen to play the sport with a disability. I want to be called inspirational because I put in the same amount of time and effort and show up every day.” Manasi shares that she’d rather have a short column than pages in a magazine focusing on how she’s an inspiration because of her disability.

She’s more than a headline that pulls at people’s heartstrings: she’s an elite athlete who dominates international tournaments and puts in the blood, sweat and tears to make it to the top.