Minna Svard
speaker
31 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Minna Svard’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Thank you so much for having me.
I started talking to some different coaches in America about getting the chance to get a full ride scholarship and go over there to, you know, experience the American way of doing things, getting the chance to get my education while continuing my athletic career.
Yes, ma'am.
I went to a school in Texas. At the time, it was called Texas A&M University Commerce.
At this point, I'm not competing at the same level anymore. I'm still practicing.
Oh, when I went to Texas. Okay. It was going really well. I had a great experience there. until 2019 at the national championship. But other than that, me as an athlete, I developed and I, I did really good.
So in 2019, I qualified for the national championship and division two. Um, I was going to run the 400 hurdles, um, for a few weeks prior to getting to the competition. I heard a lot of rumors going around that, um, I would be competing against the male competitor. Um, So, you know, coming up to the competition, I was trying to focus on myself and making sure that I got ready for the meet.
But yeah, showing up at the track competition, one of the competitors that qualified was a man, took a spot from one of the females that would have been able to be at the national championship. So that was a very shocking experience for me. It was not something that I expected.
Personally, I found out just a few weeks prior to the actual competition.
I tried to focus on myself more, you know, because I can't affect anyone else's results on the track. So I tried to focus on myself to make sure that I am ready for whenever I need to be. But I heard it from teammates and other people in the track community talking about it. So, yeah.
You're stuck with this deal with it. So how did that make you feel?
Two years prior, he competed as a man.
Yeah, somewhere around there. And then two years later, he won the national championship for women. Something that we've been fighting for years.
Yeah. Look at the video. We're not even in the picture when he's crossing the finish line. And taking that moment away from, in this situation, me, but in other situations, any woman.
Yes, ma'am. That was the year I placed second at the national championship.
400 meter hurdles.
Yes, ma'am. I would have.
I tried to pretend like everything was fine. I remember crossing the finish line and I started tearing up and I wiped it really quick to try to hide it from everybody else. Because even though I knew a lot of people felt the same way I did, no one spoke up, no one dared to say anything. When we were at the meet, you could feel it in the air that something was different.
In the speakers, they called out that we had to show sportsmanship and that we had to be inclusive. And that's something that I hadn't heard at a national championship for the NCAA prior to what was happening at this meet. So I felt like I had to be quiet.
I want NCAA to give back what was ours, the females that lost their trophies their recognition their records they need to get back whatever they deserved and take it from the men because men have no place in women's sports that is why we have two separate categories in sports because we shouldn't mix that uh
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