Monday Motivation: She is Us

Monday Motivation, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Athletes, Women

Look.

Look a bit longer.

Keep looking until it sinks in.

She is us. We can be her.

There our countless inspirational stories at the Olympics but none that caught the world’s attention or mine today like Rayssa Leal, the girl in the photos above.

Rayssa’s official Wikipedia profile reads, “Jhulia Rayssa Mendes Leal (born 4 January 2008), also known as Rayssa Leal, is a goofy-footed Brazilian skateboarder, silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Games. She is also known as the “Little Skateboard Fairy”, a nickname she got after her video went viral at the age of eight doing skateboarding tricks in a fairy costume.”

She qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she participated when she was only 13 years old, being the youngest Brazilian to participate in the Olympic Games ever. In the skateboarding street competition, she ranked 3rd in the qualifiers. In the final, she won the silver medal and is the youngest Olympic medalist of the past 85 years and the youngest athlete in the history of Brazil to reach a podium at the Olympics.

If you look back and read my Wednesday’s blog post, you will see my highlight of Wally Funk, a woman in her 80s, who achieved her dream of flying into space after a lifetime of dreaming. In contrast, today Rayssa Leal achieves her dream at the age of 13, teaching every single woman reading this piece today that anything is possible, at any stage of life, if you pursue your goals passionately, forgetting your age or stage in life.

Women often seek inspirational stories of other women to glean access to what it takes to succeed, especially in business, but what these two females teach us is that we have the power with our personal actions, hopes, tenacity, and unlimited belief in ourselves to do and accomplish anything.

So, what are you waiting for?