You Run Like A Girl - Edition 4

Good evening,

It’s almost the end of January and I’m writing my fourth edition of this newsletter. I’ll be sharing this online in audio format as well, so look out for that to be appearing on YouTube and in Apple and Spotify podcast directories soon.

If you’re new here, hello and welcome. I’m Amita and I’m the creator of You Run Like A Girl, a media brand that gives a voice to women in sport. In this newsletter, my goal is to share the most interesting stories I read, watched or listened to about women’s sports.

In this edition:

• 🏀 Jeanie Buss is Laughing Through Her Pain (basketball)

• ⚽️ Naomi Girma is Women's Soccer's 1st Million Dollar Player (soccer)

• 🏒 Fifteen Years After First ‘Golden Goal,’ Marie-Philip Poulin Returns to the Place Her Legend Began (hockey)

Ready? Let’s dive in.

Jeanie Buss is Laughing Through Her Pain

Earlier this week, Netflix dropped a few image stills for the upcoming basketball comedy, Running Point. I’ve been waiting for Mindy Kaling’s latest since I heard about it in 2021. Television series set in the sporting world rarely have female main characters, so Running Point is a welcome change.

But we can’t talk about Running Point without talking about Jeanie Buss, the current owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers. Jeanie is the daughter of the late Jerry Buss, a prominent American businessman who purchased the Lakers in 1979. Upon his death in 2013, he left a controlling stake in the team divided equally among his six children; Jeanie became the governor.

A power struggle ensued, ultimately leading to Jeanie’s brother’s resignation and a lawsuit that split the family. While all of this was happening, Jeanie was coping with a lot of personal loss (the deaths of her parents, Kobe Bryant and former NBA commissioner David Stern and the ending of her engagement to basketball coach Phil Jackson.)

It would be easy to assume that Kaling heard the Succession-style story, bought the rights, and set about turning it into a show. But to do so would be doing a disservice to both Kaling and Buss.

Stand-up comedy was something Buss loved for years but didn’t necessarily want to make a career out of. Encouraged by her friends, she took a comedy course - not with the intention to switch jobs - but rather as a tool for helping her heal.

As far as Kaling goes, close observers of her comedy will spot at least two female student athletes in shows she has either created or produced (Aneesa in Never Have I Ever and Whitney in The Sex Lives of College Girls). While Kaling may not have been an athlete growing up, she takes her job seriously, and I appreciate that she and her team make a point to write athletic characters with emotional heft and depth. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they’ve come up with in this new series.

While Buss said the show isn’t based on her real life, she and longtime Lakers colleague Linda Rambis did share insights about their own experiences working in the NBA with the Running Point producing team.

There are no shortage of profiles about Buss, but I chose to share this one because I think the reader can really see how she processed her pain and loss through comedy.

Read the full article here. If that link doesn’t work, try this. (Credit: Written by Jon Gold for The New York Times.)

Naomi Girma is Women’s Soccer’s 1st Million Dollar Player

This past week, Naomi Girma made history as women’s soccer’s first million-dollar player after transferring from the NWSL's San Diego Wave to Chelsea FC. Although Chelsea did not disclose the fee, reports suggest the English champions paid $1.1 million (USD), surpassing the previous record of $788,000 set by Bay FC for Rachael Kundananji.

Born in San Jose, California, to Ethiopian immigrant parents, Girma had a standout collegiate career at Stanford University, where she captained the team to a national championship in 2019. Selected first overall by the San Diego Wave in the 2022 NWSL Draft, she went on to earn both Rookie of the Year and Defender of the Year honors. Last year, she won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA.

Girma is also something of a trailblazer, breaking barriers to become the first player of Ethiopian descent to play for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team and the National Women’s Soccer League. Her success on the field and passion for the game are deeply rooted in the values of her Ethiopian heritage. As she said in an interview with NBC Sports in June of 2024:

“Growing up and being one of the only Black girls on a lot of my teams was something that I wish was different. I feel like I was embraced and had a good experience, but I always wanted it to be more accessible. I feel like the barrier to entry was really high with a lot of the pay-to-play youth sports.”

Girma’s trade marks a major milestone in women’s soccer. For context, here’s a quick snapshot of some of the fees throughout history (all figures USD):

• 2002: Brazilian midfielder Milene Domingues moves from Fiammamonza to Rayo Vallecano for $310,000.

• 2020: Denmark forward Pernille Harder transfers from Wolfsburg to Chelsea for $355,000.

• 2022: English midfielder Keira Walsh leave’s Manchester City to join Barcelona for a reported transfer fee of $513,000.

• 2024: Zambia’s Racheal Kundananji is moved from Madrid CFF to the NWSL’s Bay FC for a whopping $788,000.

• 2025: As shared above, American Naomi Girma breaks the 7 figure mark, with a reported $1.1 million dollar transfer fee to Chelsea.

Whether or not the increase in transfer fees continues remains to be seen, but if the upsurge in interest in the women’s game is anything to go by, I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet.

Read the full article here. (Credit: Written by Steve Douglas for The Associated Press).

Fifteen Years After First ‘Golden Goal,’ Marie-Philip Poulin Returns to the Place Her Legend Began

Marie-Philip Poulin is widely regarded as one of the greatest female ice hockey players of all time. In this thoughtful piece, writer Hailey Salvian reflects on Poulin’s legacy as the star forward takes to the ice in the same Vancouver venue that launched her career 15 years ago, catapulting her to stardom at the 2010 Olympics.

For the uninitiated, Poulin is sort of like hockey’s answer to Christine Sinclair. The 33 year-old from Beauceville, Quebec, scored the game-winning goal in three Olympics. She is also the only player (male or female) to score in four consecutive Olympic gold medal games. She has four Olympic medals and 12 world medals. That she has earned the moniker ‘Captain Clutch’ isn’t surprising - you’d be hard-pressed to find an athlete in any sport that can consistently deliver under pressure the way Poulin can.

Those who know Poulin have nothing but words of admiration and respect for the deftly skilled but humble hockey player.

“She knows how to be the best in the biggest moments and that was just the start of an incredible career,” said former teammate Caroline Ouellette. “There’s so many players that have been compared to her since. But I don’t think there has ever been anyone close. And to me, she’s the best player to have ever played the game.”

Now a full-time player with the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire, the Boston University graduate is still at the top of her game. While she’s focused in the short term on the PWHL, Poulin also has her eyes set on more hardware at the 2026 Olympics in Italy.

Read the full article here. If that link doesn’t work, try this. (Credit: Written by Hailey Salvian for The Athletic).