Women of Influence by SheSpeaks
Join us each week on the Women of Influence podcast, hosted by Aliza Freud and presented by SheSpeaks. Each week, Aliza sits down with trailblazing women from various fields—business leaders, social media influencers, authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders—who are using their platforms to create meaningful impact. Discover how these women harness their influence to inspire, motivate, and drive change, and gain actionable insights you can apply to your own life!
Women of Influence by SheSpeaks
In Her Words: Redefining Sports Media & Stories of Women Athletes with Flamebearers
In this episode, we dive into a world of storytelling, resilience, and sports with Jamie Mittelman, the voice behind the award-winning podcast Flamebearers.
Flamebearers amplifies the stories of women Olympians and Paralympians from around the world, shining a light on the intersection of sports, gender equity, and human perseverance.
Jamie shares how her Harvard experience and passion for amplifying underrepresented voices led to the creation of this groundbreaking podcast. You’ll hear the inspiration behind Flamebearers and the mission to elevate the stories of women athletes, the challenges faced by women in sports media and how they are breaking barriers, as well as the unique stories for resilience, diversity and triumph by women in athletics.
Episode Highlights:
- The inspiration behind Flamebearers and its mission to elevate the stories of women athletes.
- Challenges faced by female athletes and how they’re breaking through barriers.
- The unique narratives of resilience, diversity, and triumph that make these athletes’ stories unforgettable.
- How storytelling can inspire a new generation of leaders and changemakers.
🎧 Tune in now and follow Jamie & Flamebearers below for more information:
Website: https://flamebearers.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flamebearers/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a5dMGFv0_Q
Connect with Jamie Mittelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemittelman/
Want more from SheSpeaks?
* Sign up for our podcast newsletter HERE! *
- Connect with us on Instagram, FB & Twitter @shespeaksup
- Contact us at podcast@shespeaks.com
- WATCH our podcast on YouTube @SheSpeaksTV
anyone can tap into, their inner Olympian, their inner Paralympian, that the attributes that make these women literally the best in the world at what they do at their craft are attributes that anyone can harness, that anyone can tap into, whether or not you are in sports or not.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the show. Hope you're all having a great week so far. We have a terrific episode for you today. In today's day and age, there are more and more athletes who are female athletes who are getting due attention, are female athletes who are getting due attention, and today's guest, jamie Middleman, is on a mission to ensure that we all know who these amazing female athletes are.
Speaker 2:Flamebearers is designed to amplify the voices of women, olympians and Paralympians and Jamie does this with such incredible skill through amazing storytelling. On today's episode, jamie will tell us some of the unbelievable stories of the athletes she has featured in her series. What I love about Jamie is she has such a unique ability to bring the athlete's story to life, to make us feel like we are a part of what this athlete is going through and understanding what hurdles they've overcome and let me tell you there are some significant hurdles that some of these female athletes who have been featured in Jamie's content in Flamebearers what they have overcome to get to where they are. You are definitely going to want to check out Flamebearers. After this, we will have links to where you can check out the content. There are amazing stories of these women With that I'm going to let you hear my conversation with Jamie.
Speaker 2:Here we go, jamie, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, aliza, I'm pumped to be here. Show. Thank you for having me, aliza, I'm pumped to be here. I love what you do and I took a tour of some of your amazing episodes of your podcast and what you're trying to do. So talk to me first about what is Flamebearers and what inspired you to start what you're doing with Flamebearers.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I could talk about this for hours. Flamebearers is the world's first media production company that specifically tells the stories of the best women athletes in our world. So we tell stories in three ways podcasts, like you mentioned, video production and the third is live events. What we do is we center her story and her words In terms of why this is needed. If you take a step back, I call sports media very much a misnomer. 85% of sports media coverage goes to men, so that means that less than 15% of sports media goes to women.
Speaker 2:Okay, wait, I want to stop you quickly. When you say media, just so people listening to understand, what do you mean by? When you say 85% of sports media goes to men, listening to understand, what do you mean by?
Speaker 1:when you say 85% of sports media goes to men, yep, what does that mean? Television, newspapers, magazines. Social media is significantly changing the game, but historically it's editorial and coverage on television.
Speaker 2:Okay, so. So basically all the shows that you see on ESPN or what are all of those places it's, those are probably geared towards the men Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean growing up love 30 for 30, but there was only male athletes. There was no female 30 for 30 equivalent.
Speaker 2:Such a great series. I totally agree.
Speaker 1:Outstanding, incredible. They are literally providing youth with the ability to see themselves in those athletes' shoes, and that's kind of our entire hypothesis is that if you can see it, you can be it. So we're trying to provide role models of all backgrounds, be they religious ability types, different sports, different nationalities, different religions those role models. So we're kind of broadening the aperture of who's being featured.
Speaker 1:What I was going to say is, of that 15% of women, they pretty much all fit a very narrow mold. So of the 15% of media coverage that is out there, the vast majority of athletes who are getting covered are white, able-bodied women who normally play soccer or basketball. And hey, I'm not going to knock on it, that's me. I'm not a professional athlete, my name is Jamie, I'm from the Boston area, I have no disabilities and I played soccer in college. So there's only so much I can say about that. But I think that there is a massive opportunity to broaden the pie, that, yes, a Caitlin card can absolutely and should be featured, but so should an Angel Reese, and that there's enough room for everyone to have their story told. And it's not an either or.
Speaker 2:I think one of the other things about what you're doing is the timing I feel like is really good when you think about some things that have happened culturally. You know, you think about Taylor Swift and how she has just she's just huge. Obviously, she's had this amazing tour and during the tour she's been dipping in and out to go to her boyfriend's football games and it is really showing a lot of these traditional media, right when the media you were talking about that women are lovers of these sports, even if they're not playing the sport themselves. They are part of the audience. Has that shifted things in terms of what you're hearing and the interest in what you all are doing?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and we're seeing. I think one of the other things that Taylor has done so well is we're seeing the multitudes that women can hold, that she's not just a singer-songwriter, she's also a girlfriend, she's also a sports fan, she's very much passionate about her political views, and I think that that is super important in terms of what we do, because we're not just showing these women as athletes, but we're really talking about who they are as women and talking about the issues that they care about, be it motherhood, be it mental health, be it eating disorders, eating challenges, be it losing their period at an early age. These are the issues that elite female athletes talk about and care about. And, yes, they go onto the court or onto the field or onto the mountain and they absolutely kill it, but what keeps them up at night is really these human things that every single person can relate to, whether or not you've ever played a sport in your life.
Speaker 2:Spark in you that led you to launch this and want to do this for female athletes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can give you the professional answer and the personal answer. I like to share both. The professional answer was born out of need and necessity. I had been receiving a master's at the Harvard Kennedy School as a policy master's and I had been pitching a role actually to the International Olympic Committee around their gender equity work and there was interest and excitement. But then COVID happened and the world was turned upside down and I said, well, I'm not just going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs, I'm going to do something about this. So I applied for funding within the Harvard ecosystem, built out a team and launched this, what I thought was going to be my summer internship. Six years later, I'm still doing this work.
Speaker 1:So, it was not the plan. What I do like to mention on the personal front is I would not have had the courage to do this if I hadn't lost my dad. So right before I went to Harvard, I had lost my dad to glioblastoma, which is a terminal brain cancer, and losing him and then almost losing my mom within the same year, I really had a wake-up call where I said this is not a dress rehearsal. We got one shot at this thing called life. I am going to give it my all, and I think before that I wouldn't say that I was cautious, but I think that I was more fear-driven, I was more reactionary, and I decided after that that I was not going to let fear dictate my professional and personal decisions.
Speaker 2:On this show. We've had a few female Olympians, We've had gymnastics Olympians on, We've had Paralympics athletes on as well, really wanting to achieve and having to do it bravely, because there are so many obstacles in the way of achieving that type of success. So is that part of what you're like kind of thinking about, that idea of you know you only live this one life, go for it. You know it's not a dress rehearsal. Do you see those as a similar mindset?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think that's kind of one of the through lines in all of our conversations is that anyone can tap into their inner Olympian, their inner Paralympian, that the attributes that make these women literally the best in the world at what they do, at their craft, are attributes that anyone can harness, that anyone can tap into, whether or not you are in sports or not. And that is kind of one of our take-home messages. Again, we're not focusing on the person as an athlete but as this woman, as an individual, as a human, and I think the differentiator there is that people can listen to it and they can relate to it. They can see little bits of themselves in the mirror.
Speaker 2:What are some of those attributes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's so many different ones, one of them you mentioned. It's kind of this single-minded focus. It is this ability to prolong, deter, immediate gratification for their long-term goals. These individuals have a drive that is so unbelievably cool to watch and to learn from. Essentially, I would also say that there's this incredible sense of community, and especially with women athletes, of surrounding themselves with people who lift them up.
Speaker 1:One thing that I've heard repetitively from people who've won medals and are standing on the podium at the Olympics or the Paralympics, but what they're thinking about in their mind is their mother and their father who drove them to practice. Their teammate who lifted them up when they were having a bad day. Their coach who believed in them when they were really struggling. And it's this sense of community amongst female athletes that really lifts them up and makes them successful when they go through doubts, and it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Just like everyone, we all have our own insecurities. We all have our ups and downs, but that's something that I like to call out because I think so often people see an individual, and I think many athletes are very clear about the fact that it is a village that made them successful.
Speaker 2:Can you just quickly talk about what is the difference between an Olympian, a Paralympian, and how did the Special Olympics fit into that?
Speaker 1:Such a good question, one of the most common sources of confusion. So the Paralympics literally means parallel to the Olympics. The Paralympics is for individuals with physical disabilities, so Olympians are able-bodied individuals, elite athletes, paralympians are also super qualified elite athletes with physical disabilities. Now the confusion is Special Olympics is a completely separate entity. It's a nonprofit that works with individuals with intellectual impairments. So Paralympians is physical, special Olympics is intellectual.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got it. Well, that I mean, thank you. That is helpful. And if you think about, then, the types of women who you feature and the stories you're trying to spotlight, can you talk a little bit about why you think it's important to cover a wide range of athletes, ones maybe who everybody like household names, let's say but also ones that people may not have heard of Totally?
Speaker 1:So to date, we've worked with about 275 different Olympians and Paralympians from 55 different countries, and we've worked with athletes like a Sue Bird or a Becky Sauerbrunn or a Caster Semenya.
Speaker 1:But for every athlete who's very big, who people know, who people recognize, we elevate five to six different athletes from lesser known communities where the infrastructure isn't as strong, where they may not have had the systemic support, societally or financially, and we do that again back to the idea of role modelship, that if they're fighting against A, b and C, we want to give them every leg up that we can.
Speaker 1:So that's why we work with athletes like Rita Asimwe of Uganda. That's why we work with athletes like Rita Simway of Uganda, or Massima Al-Azada of Afghanistan, or even Alexa Moreno of Mexico, who was the first person to say that her infrastructure growing up was horrible, that she fell through the floor of her gymnasium, she came in fourth in the vault in Tokyo and was the top performing gymnast in her country's history, and she's having to train in subpar institutions. So these are the people that, yes, we are absolutely giving voice to, the individuals who everyone knows, and it is a yes, two thumbs up At the same time for every individual like that there's tons more who are getting overlooked, who I think we can learn just as much from Can you maybe talk about one of your favorite inspiring stories, just to kind of give our audience a little flavor for what you're covering and who they might hear on your show.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, so this question is always so hard for me because I feel like I'm having to choose between my children.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But I mentioned Massima Alizada, so Massima is on the Olympic refugee team. So, first of all, a lot of people are not familiar with the fact that there is an Olympic refugee team, so this features individuals from war-torn countries who otherwise may not have the ability to compete in the Olympics. Massima is from Afghanistan. She grew up cycling and, in order to do so, would dress up as a man. So, growing up, women could not bike ride in Afghanistan. So what she would do is she would get on her bike every day, dressed up as a man, and she would have to have a man in front of her and a man behind her, because every now and then a car would pass her and they would realize that she was actually a woman. And what they would do then is they would hit her, they would verbally assault her, sometimes they would pull over and try to get her to stop riding. Really horrific stuff. And Masama did this day in and day out until she qualified for the Olympics. Masama did this day in and day out until she qualified for the Olympics.
Speaker 1:Now, what is so crazy about Masama's story, besides the fact of her resilience and single-minded focus to achieve her dream? Today she uses her platform to elevate the plight of women in Afghanistan. Yes, she is an international superstar. She is the face of the Olympic refugee team. This past summer, she was actually what's called the chef de maison. Essentially, it is the face, the leader of the team platform to talk about women stuck under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Now, I think this is a perfect example of someone who is thinking about her community over herself, but I think it's also an example of her always remembering where she's from, even though she's in a very different situation today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you think about that the story you just shared with us, also the story of the woman from Mexico who is an elite gymnast and she's falling through the floor of her gym because it is not a facility that is up to par, probably for an Olympian level you think to yourself that the amount of fortitude in their minds that they have to have to get to where they are, overcoming what they do to compete at that level, is beyond probably what it would take for somebody who is in a place where, like the wind is at your back and everyone's on your side. They want you to be as successful. You've got state-of-the-art equipment. You've got all the tools. No one's pulling over to the side of the road throwing things at you trying to get you to stop. You know, doing whatever the sport is that you're doing Totally. It's really unbelievable.
Speaker 1:It's very what these women go through Very different starting lines and you know they all end up on the global stage competing for those titles. But where they started and how they got there, their stories are vastly different. Alejandra Abar of the Dominican Republic. She was the Dominican Republic's first ever female para swimmer. She compared, she said Jamie the way I understand it in terms of Paralympians or Olympians getting to the game. She said it's like you take an overnight flight across the world. You have some people who are flying in first class and then you have some people flying in coach. And that is not to negate the people flying in first class. It is still very hard, but if you're sitting in the back of the airplane in a tiny little seat fighting for every little thing that you get and again, not to say that the people in first class aren't and these are her words she said the journey to that has very different challenges than the journey in first class.
Speaker 2:It makes you think to yourself that this is exactly where people are coming from when they say. We need to show the stories of these people who are overcoming unbelievable things to get where they are.
Speaker 1:Truly unbelievable. And if I can share one more, yes, please. Rita is from Uganda. She grew up right-handed. She was celebrating a holiday at her grandmother's house. Thieves broke in and she distracted the thieves. She ran out on the street and they hacked off her right arm with a machete. She woke up in a pool of blood, crawled her way to the local hospital and essentially today is the number one para badminton player in all of Africa. She relearned how to do absolutely everything in her life, from writing to doing laundry, to cooking, to playing her sport, and is now the number one Paralympic badminton player on the entire continent of Africa. Now, that's an experience that I have never had. I cannot relate to it, but I'm going to say absolutely. I'm going to elevate your story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, resilience I mean the resilience that is required to do something like that is unbelievable. Flamebearers has received awards, which is exciting. You just received a Signal Award for Diversity, equity and Inclusion. What do you think has made your approach so impactful?
Speaker 1:Two things I would say. When we started doing this almost five and a half years ago, no one else was first of all telling the stories of elite women, athletes, but especially the aperture of athletes that we're talking about. So this broad range of athletes, so as an American woman, not just featuring other American women, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I think that there is a whole world of other women who we could also learn from. So it's a yes and not an either or. And then the other thing I would say is how their stories are being told.
Speaker 1:So it's not just the fact of that we're covering them, it's how we're doing it, and I think the difference here is telling her story and her words. So what we do is we approach every interview, every video with as much from the athlete's perspective as possible Throughout the entire process. They have veto rights, so they can say hey, jayme, I don't like this, I don't like your portrayal of me, and we will not air it Now. That's very different than how most media companies approach a story, where they have their deadlines, they got to get it out. But the trust of our community is the single most important thing to me and I think as a result, the athletes feel very seen and heard.
Speaker 2:What do you hope to accomplish with the work you're doing with Flamebearers?
Speaker 1:focused, not a lot of diversity when it comes to ability, for example. They also work in very specific mediums. I hope that Flamebearers becomes the go-to place for diverse elite female athletes around the world. I also hope, from a representation perspective, that young girls and boys now have role models, who they can look up to, who look and sound like them, that you know Rita can now share her episode in Uganda with young girls who may have gone through something similar and they can realize wow, I'm going to be okay, that's huge to me. And then the third thing I would say is that we continue to have that 100% hit rate with every single individual we work with. That is paramount to me. With every single individual we work with. That is paramount to me. That every single individual we work with comes away feeling seen and heard.
Speaker 2:So if you were to think about your five years from now, where and how would people be able to consume the content, all of these stories that you are working so hard to create and to get out there?
Speaker 1:That's what I'm really excited about is that is changing right now. So right now we're in the process of working on a video documentary series that we are selling to some major networks. I can't tell you where that's going to live, because we're still figuring that out. Right now we have a website, flamebearerscom, which drives to all of our content which you can find on YouTube. You can go to any of your podcasting platforms. You can listen to all of our episodes there. You can also follow along with behind the scenes stuff on all of our social media channels, so Instagram, Facebook, TikTok X, though I still call it Twitter. So that's kind of where we are right now. Where we want to go is we hope you can find us across all major streaming platforms. We hope to be going into more company offices, brick and mortars, hosting more live events, bringing the athletes to the community in person.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. And if you go back to what you've been talking about I know you've mentioned it now a couple of times this idea that if you can see it, you can be it like that, this inspiration for younger girls, younger people who are seeing these inspiring stories, these stories of unbelievable things that these athletes are overcoming in order to get where they're going and just what can be learned from that. What is Noble Gold? I'm excited for you and, of course, for these athletes who you're featuring. If people want to find you find the stories, what is the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, first of all, I would love to hear from them. If there's anything that I said today and it resonates, reach out to me. My email, my personal email, is jamie at flamebearerscom. Shoot me a note. If there's anything that I said that you're like, wow, that seems super cool, I want to work with them in some way, shoot me a note. You can find us on flamebearerscom. You can find all of our episodes there, all of our video content, all of our podcast content, some highlights from our live events. You can also follow along on social media. So all those different channels.
Speaker 2:Is there anything coming up that you're super excited about that you can tell us about? I know you're working on some documentary stuff streaming services Is there anything you can tell us about that? Maybe is that people should look out for.
Speaker 1:What I would say is right now we are in the throes of producing a new series called Unedited. So we heard from our community that they just wanted more, that our historic production schedule was too slow for them, that they wanted more stories. So we launched a series called Unedited bringing largely unedited conversations to people. So you can find that on YouTube and all podcasting platforms. What's cool about that series is there are women at all stages of their journey, so historically, we've only worked with athletes who are almost qualified or qualified. This series is from athletes who haven't qualified all the way through to retirement, so we're catching them at the entire part of their arc, and I think that is also something that most people don't do. They only catch them right before they go to the Olympics or as soon as they come home. But what?
Speaker 2:happens after they go to the Olympics or as soon as they come home, but what happens after? I love that. I mean understanding the journey and before after it's. It also represents the person in such a well-rounded way. Well, jamie Middleman, thank you so much for spending this time with us today and for all the work you're doing. I mean so inspiring, and I am excited for people to follow the stories. See the stories because they're compelling and we appreciate what you're doing. I mean so inspiring and I am excited for people to follow the stories. See the stories because they're compelling and we appreciate what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for having me. I love she Speaks and think what you're doing is incredible too.
