California gubernatorial candidate, former eBay CEO
Now in the headlines for her bid for California governor, Meg Whitman started on her way to becoming one of the most powerful women in business at eBay in 1998. But prior to her success in the business world, she played lacrosse and squash in high school at Long Island's Cold Spring Harbor High School, and then as an undergraduate at Princeton University. Since graduating in 1977, she has been
a generous donor to the school's athletic programs.
Host,
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Ellen DeGeneres is considered
one of the most powerful women in media, and she began her power playing on the tennis court. At Texas' Atlanta High School, she played tennis, and
she calls herself "very much a tomboy. I loved sports, running around, playing tennis."
Founder, Vera Wang
Vera Wang, who created her own fashion house, grabbed headlines during the 2010 Winter Olympics for
designing figure skating costumes for Evan Lysacek, but she had already made her own name in the sport. Trained as figure skater in her youth, she and partner James Stuart competed in the 1968 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. When she failed to make the Olympic team, she
entered the fashion industry. In 2009, she was inducted in the Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
Former CEO, Women's Sports Foundation
Donna Lopiano, considered one of the most powerful women in sports, had her own experiences on the field before dominating the industry. The CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation from 1992 to 2007, Lopiano participated in 26 national championships in four sports and was a
nine-time All-American in softball. She also served as the president of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and is president and co-founder of the consulting group
Sports Management Resources.
Co-founder, Mrs. Fields' Cookies
Mrs. Fields' Cookies have their background in sports. Debbi Fields, co-founder and president of the cookie company, started her professional life as a ball girl for the Oakland Athletics, making
$5 an hour at the age of 13. [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbi_Fields] But she has another love in sports:
Fields remains an avid equestrian to this day.
CEO, Bluefly, Inc.
Melissa Payner-Gregor is one of the leaders in the catalog and mail order business, but she got her start in the gym. As a student at Ohio State and Arizona State, she was a
competitive gymnast.
Founder, Gilt Groupe
Alexis Maybank has been named one of the "40 Under 40" power players after
founding the e-commerce and fashion company Gilt Groupe, and she says her time as a lacrosse player and cross-country runner at Harvard helped her succeed in business. "Classrooms are so safe,"
she has said. "There's something about the heightened level of pressure from a leadership position in a team environment that I didn't get in a classroom."
CEO, Sunoco
Lynn Elsenhans, named by Forbes as the 10th most powerful woman in business, is the
CEO of Sunoco and the director of International Paper. The first woman to lead a major oil company, Elsenhans pioneered in sports as well: She was a member of
Rice University's first intercollegiate basketball squad.
CEO, Pepsi
Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo., rose to the rank of the Most Powerful Woman in Business in 2010, but she has been a sports fan her whole life. She
played cricket in college and remains a passionate New York Yankees and Chicago Bulls fan.
CEO, Kraft
Rising to become the CEO of the one of the world's largest food companies requires a competitive nature, and Irene Rosenfeld says playing sports growing up nurtured her competitive drive. She played four varsity sports in high school and said she chose Cornell University because of their
"fabulous" women's athletic program. She
remains an avid rollerblader.
2008 vice-presidential candidate, former Alaska governor
Everyone knows the former governor's basketball nickname, Sarah Barracuda. She played point guard in high school and helped her team to win the 1982 state championship. She frequently draws on the sport for metaphors, as in her
2009 resignation speech: "Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me—sports... basketball. I use it because you're naïve if you don't see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket... and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I'm doing that—keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities—smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it's time to pass the ball—for victory."
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
Susan Rice was a
three-sport athlete at Washington's Cathedral School, where she especially loved basketball; this June, she received the WNBA Inspiration Award. In her award speech, she said: "These days, I try save what little game I have left for the floor of the Security Council. But I'm still a competitor and a true believer in the importance of athletics. As you know so well, sports teach you how to work in teams. Sports build discipline and confidence. Sports build your strength and grit. My years as a student athlete taught me to insist on excellence and demand fair play, and I still draw on those values and strengths when I'm calling plays today."
former secretary of State
Though she's a fan of women's basketball,
Rice's sport of choice growing up was figure skating, she said. "I told the [WNBA] athletes how much I envied them, playing a sport in which you can actually sweat and grimace when something goes wrong. In skating, even after the most humiliating and painful falls you were expected to get up and smile. This despite the fact that your dress was plastered to your body—courtesy of the water puddle on the ice that skaters always seemed to find when they hit the ice."
sports reporter, ESPN
As a sports reporter, Erin Andrews' dedication to sports is clear. But she also dabbled in sports herself: She was a member of the University of Florida dance team the Dazzlers, who
dance at the Gator basketball games.
Singer-songwriter
Sheryl Crow had an early fondness for athletics, competing in various sports at a young age. "I ran track when I was in high school," she
has said. "I went to the [Missouri] state [champions] on the hurdles. I've been swimming since I was 5 years old. I competed on swim teams." Crow still enjoys staying fit: "I still run. I love running. I swim but not as much as I should. And I ride my road bike."
Actress
Harry Potter star Emma Watson played hockey and tennis and skied while she was in school. "I'm very, very sporty—I ski, I fish, I do field hockey and tons of stuff," she
told the Los Angeles Times. No word on whether the in-demand actress has any time for sports while she attends Brown University.
Actress
Jessica Biel not only played a high school basketball player on
7th Heaven, but she was also a sports nut herself when was a teenager. She was a soccer player who worshiped Mia Hamm. "That was the person I wanted to be, not a supermodel," she
told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "I wanted ripped abs, muscular thighs, beautiful arms." Her love of staying active clearly has not abated—there's a reason she's consistently complimented for having one of the most athletic bodies in show business.
