It's the last episode of the year! And Kelly and Sara are closing out the season with a full-on countdown of the best races, records, performances, and picks in women’s sports this year.

From #16 all the way down to our #1 women's sports moment of 2025!

What did we miss? What was your moment of the year? Send us a voice memo at podcasts@livefeisty.com and we'll be back in the new year.

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To get you in the cozy holiday spirit, Kelly and Sara are throwing down some of their best women's sports book and movie recommendations.

But, first, this week's women's sports highlights:

• 55 women hit the Olympic Trials qualifying standard at CIM — even though the standard (2:37) is faster than ever! And a shoutout to Molly Born, who won the race in her first marathon, despite a fall in the final straightaway.
• And you should be following SkiMo (ski mountaineering)! Where it all came down to the U.S. vs. Canada for the final Olympic spot. Enter Anna Gibson, world-class trail runner, who was recruited and secretly turned out to be amazing! (It's Kelly's dream.)
• Bonus shoutout to Alysa Liu, who won the Grand Prix in figure skating in her comeback-to-the-Olympics tour.

…like we were saying — a few follow-ups:

• The highest-paid women athletes in 2025. Why are 10 of the top 15 tennis players? Thank you, Billie Jean King.
• The NWSL rejected Trinity Rodman’s contract deal, which is not a good look for the league.
• And the WNBA is still hashing out CBA issues. What's the latest?

Then: Our full list of women's sports book & movie recs

Kelly and Sara are deep in movies-and-books season, which prompted us to pull together some of our Feisty favs. Some of the ones mentioned in the episode:

• A League of Their Own
• Love & Basketball
• Bend It Like Beckham
• Bring It On
• The Cutting Edge
• Personal Best
• Challengers

Sara isn't much of a movie-watcher, but she does love books!

• Good for a Girl, Lauren Fleshman
• Better Faster Farther, Maggie Mertens
• The Longest Race, Kara Goucher
• Money, Power, Respect: How Women in Sports Are Shaping the Future of Feminism, Macaela MacKenzie
• Tough Broad, Caroline Paul
• Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, Joan Ryan
• In These Girls Hope Is a Muscle, Madeleine Blais
• We Loved to Run, Stephanie Reents
• Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Favorites, Layne Fargo
• As Good as Gold, Kathryn Bertine
• Stand, Kathryn Bertine
• Tough Broad, Caroline Paul
• Up to Speed, Christine Yu
• Endure, Alex Hutchinson
• Shoe Dog, Phil Knight
• For kids: Anything from Strong Girl Publishing, plus Molly Hurford's Shred Girls series

What are your recs? What did we miss? Send us a voice memo to podcasts@livefeisty.com

Plus, our Feisty Picks of the week!

Chapters:

• 01:10 -...

Kelly and Sara are asking two burning questions this week: Is San Francisco really the top women’s sports town in the world? (The New York Times says so and Kelly agrees.) And: Why in 2025 is Nordic Combined still the *only* sport women aren’t allowed to compete in at the Olympics?

But first, the women's sports highlights:

• Mikaela Shiffrin just won her 104th World Cup race — her third in a row and her fifth of the last six. Why isn't this getting more hype!?
• Is it because there's too many records? How that happened.
• Speaking of: The PWHL set a record for the highest attendance at a women's hockey game in the U.S.

And then a few follow-ups. "Like we were saying..."

• There is adult cross-country! And Ceili McCabe won the Canadian champs in the snow. But the Winter Olympics still don't want to add XC to their events.
• Why the h*ll aren't women allowed to compete in Nordic Combined in the Olympics?!
• And, in the Paralympics, there is no women's sled hockey. Technically, it's co-ed, but only three women have ever competed at the Games.
• What are "whereabouts" violations in doping and why did Canada's most decorated female Olympian get one? Sara explains the logistics of how the system worked when she had to update her whereabouts everyday.
• And yes, The Enhanced Games appears to actually be happening for real.

Then: What Makes a Great Women’s Sports City?

Is San Francisco really the #1 women’s sports city in the world? According to The New York Times (and Kelly), yes. We unpack what actually creates a powerhouse women’s sports environment — fan culture, investment, access, and visibility...

Disagree? Send us a voice memo to podcasts@livefeisty.com.

Episode Resources:

The stats behind Mikaela Shiffrin's record wins: https://www.fis-ski.com/alpine-skiing/news/2024-25/a-century-in-numbers-the-stats-behind-mikaela-shiffrin-s-100-world-cup-wins

The top women's sports cities ranked: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6807524/2025/11/18/womens-sports-cities-top-ranked-fans/

A Q&A with the founder of The Enhanced Games: https://feisty.co/p/q-and-a-the-founder-of-the-enhanced/

Episode timestamps

02:58 - Mikaela Shiffrin's record-breaking records

06:03 - Are there too many...