Introduction - Nicole Zawislan

Hi! My name is Nicole Zawislan. I’m technically a senior, although I won’t be graduating at the end of this year, because I changed my major to Sport Management in my sophomore year. I’m from a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My family is very sports oriented, so I started at a young age playing soccer, basketball and softball. I eventually gave up basketball and softball to focus on soccer and played through high school. I also threw and ran distance for the track team. My dad also coached high school football when I was growing up, so I learned to enjoy the spectator side of sport from a young age. If I could see any female athlete in a game situation, it would be the combination of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings. I can still remember watching them dominate in the 2004 Olympics and being so impressed by their dedication. Watching them come back and win again in 2008 and 2012 was extremely inspiring and a big changer for the world of women’s sports. If I could see any male athlete it would be Christiano Ronaldo who plays soccer for Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portugal national team. He is arguably the best player in the world currently. I would enjoy watching him play for either team because of my love for soccer. I’m looking forward to this class because I previously took a women’s studies class to fulfill a BG Perspective course and it was an extremely interesting class. I really enjoyed learning about all of the different perspectives towards gender and I’m excited to see the connection between that and the sport industry.