FEMALE ATHLETES AT THE OLYMPICS INSPIRE EVERYONE!

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"For the first time ever, all 205 countries competing in the Olympic games are sending female athletes. NBC’s Meredith Vieira reports and speaks with sprinter Tahmina Kohistani, the sole woman on Afghanistan’s Olympic team."

These women make me feel so proud of the fact that I was an athlete growing up. I remember facing discrimination when I was a little girl, because I played basketball at a time when girls were still new to the sport. I had an experience at a basketball summer camp in which there were probably about 95 boys there and 5 girls. It was the first time girls were allowed at the camp and the boys were not having it. They made our lives a living hell, and wouldn't pass us the ball or allow us to play with them at all. They made sure we knew we weren't welcome. And everyday I would come home from the camp and cry and beg my mom not to take me back. And everyday my mom would wake me up, force me into the car, drive me there, and leave me off.

I come from a long line of progressive women, and we didn't get there by letting a group of weak, cowardly men push us around! Grateful to my mom for instilling that in me.