I’m so grateful for these athletes who show us how #GirlsAre fierce competitors and performers, and even more grateful that my daughter and my son will grow up in a world where they will have these amazing women — and the women whose names we don’t know yet — as role models to inspire their athletic dreams, to fuel their imaginations. It’s particularly important that we encourage and support girls to be physically active because there is a participation gap between boys and girls in sports. In fact, data shows that across the United States, less than 50% of middle school girls get the recommended amount of physical activity each day, and by the age of 14, they drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys.