	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 2018

Kildeer, Illinois

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I'm very honored to be joined here by three Olympic medalists. We have a stage here that represents seven Olympic medals. On the far side, we have Maia Shibutani, two-time bronze medalist in 2018 in ice dancing. In the middle we have Nancy Kerrigan, the bronze in '92, the silver in '94. And then here we have Hilary Knight, silver medalist in 2010 and 2014, the gold medalist in 2018 in ice hockey.

Ladies, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to have you. You're all here as part of the KPMG Women's Leadership Summit, and that tag line is to "inspire greatness." Nancy, who or what inspired you to reach for your dreams, and what does it mean to you when you hear people say they look up to you as what inspired their greatness?

NANCY KERRIGAN: Well, I think the person who's inspired me the most when I was young was my mom, not as an athlete but as a person. She struggled daily when I was young, I think, trying to figure out how to deal with being blind, and I think it taught me a lot of great lessons in life. How to get through adversity, keep laughing. We have to laugh or we'd be crying. You know, a lot of things could go horribly wrong and you somehow have to find the humor in it.

And also empathy and how to look at other people with an open mind and realize like everyone looks different, everyone is different, but we all have feelings. We all have frustrations and hard times, and always be open to listening. Communication is key in life, I think, in being able to move through difficult times.

As an athlete, I really -- I watched hockey a lot, and the guys in figure skating, because they were strong and fast and powerful, and I always think it's kind of cool that in skating we can basically make our own wind, and the faster you go, the more it is. I like the power. It took me a very long time to become graceful.

When someone says they look up to me, I think, well, first of all, it's an honor because that means I've hopefully done something right and not just in sport but hopefully it's about as a person, try to instill it with my kids, work hard, try hard, try new things, be brave, but appreciate the people that helped you get to where you're going because nobody does anything, I feel like, alone.

I stood on the podium thinking, wow, I'm so lucky, I feel really alone. Like I should have my whole family here and friends and people that drove me, and there's so many people involved in helping me to get to my goal that it was an amazing feeling, but then to stand there alone, I'm like, it wasn't just me. I was just like the captain of the team able to stand there or something.

I think just to be appreciative, and maybe give some advice I've learned along the way and help someone else.

THE MODERATOR: Hilary, you're perhaps at the forefront in sports right now in gender equality in sports, particularly I know you're involved with the She Is... movement and various other organizations. How do you see the world of sports for girls and for women evolving, and where do you hope it gets to in the near future?

HILARY KNIGHT: Well, I see sport as a fantastic vehicle to empower not only the people around you but the next generation. It's crazy, it was sort of said before, if you told me I'd be able to travel around the world, meet amazing people and get an education through hockey, I would have told you that you're crazy. So to be able to do all that just through sport, I understand the value of not only playing but also being ambassador both on and off the ice and how important that can be to empowering the next generation or maybe someone beside me or maybe someone in business or another industry.

Gender equity is huge. We're not where we need to be right now, but I think our country is looking for strong female role models, and to wear that hat and try to push that forward is a huge honor.

THE MODERATOR: Maia, for you, I'd kind of like to sort of bring it to the golf course. You compete with your brother, and we have several sibling duos out here on Tour, the Jutanugarns and the Kordas. What is that dynamic like being a world-class athlete but doing it with your sibling and having that partnership there?

MAIA SHIBUTANI: It's really exciting to hear that there are a lot of siblings in the golf world. For us, we were the only sibling team to compete in figure skating in either ice dance or pairs, so that made it a really unique situation.

But I just feel so fortunate because Nancy was just speaking about standing on the podium alone. I was able to stand on the podium with not only my partner but also my brother, family. We've been through so much together, and just the opportunity that we've had to work together and really grow and know that we've had each other's back no matter what, it's been such an incredible journey.

Q. Ladies, being here for this women's summit as strong, powerful women, how important is it to start the PGA off in this way, to inspire young women? How important is it for all of us to come together like this to, like I said, inspire young women?
HILARY KNIGHT: It's incredibly important. I think it's great that the KPMG Leadership Summit exists for that very reason is you get to hear other people's perspective, collaborate with other amazing women, and maybe take a couple things back home with you, wherever that may be, and have actionable items. So I think it's really cool to have this as a part of the LPGA and the championship. It's really an honor to be here and be a part of this.

NANCY KERRIGAN: I think it's amazing. As I said, I looked up to the guys skating because of the power, but now women are so powerful, and so to be able to look up to women, for young girls to be able to see that women are strong, women are powerful, women can do pretty much anything that the guy can do, we can be strong and put our mind to something and still juggle life, it's challenging and difficult but doable.

I didn't have that to look up to, so I think it's so great to be able to be part of something like this so future generations have knowledge that they have more opportunities in front of them.

MAIA SHIBUTANI: I think it's really incredible that this event exists. I'm really honored to be a part of this panel. The fact that we're all winter Olympians but that we're here really shows that there are steps that are being taken for there to be open communication not just within sports but then also within the business world.

I feel like through my own experiences I've learned so much from people that aren't just in figure skating. If you just decide to close yourself off, then yes, you can experience some level of success, but really the way the world is going, it's about communication and collaboration, so very happy to be here.

Q. I'm going to start with Hilary, but if everyone wants to take a stab at this. Next month one of the golfers here, Brittany Lincicome, is going to compete in a PGA TOUR event. Is that something that you think transcends the sport? And as women look to move toward equality, how much do you think having that kind of spotlight or platform helps, and would you want to trade places with her?
HILARY KNIGHT: That is -- I think that's incredible. Whenever you get that opportunity to compete on the same field of play as the men, it's a huge opportunity, not only for you individually as a competitor but for our gender, so there's a lot riding on that, but the right women who can take that on and be successful on that stage, you have to tip your hat to her. That's a huge amount of respect. I think it's something that I've been chasing in the NHL to get a game to play just so you can showcase your talents and really change people's mind on how they view women in sport and how they view you as a competitor.

NANCY KERRIGAN: I agree, to watch her do this, it's like seeing something like Billie Jean King years ago play Bobby Riggs, having the opportunity to show that you can be just as powerful, strong, maybe clever to be able to play alongside the guys is a huge opportunity for girls, women, across other sports as well as business and everything.

But I wouldn't want to change places. I loved what I did, and I'm so appreciative of all the opportunities I was able to have because of it. Like you're saying, going to schools, traveling the world, it's been amazing. But I think it's pretty awesome, really, to have that opportunity for herself and for all of us watching. I wish her well and good luck.

MAIA SHIBUTANI: Those two really did a great job covering it, but I guess more from a humor standpoint, no, I wouldn't want to trade places because I definitely don't have her skills, but I'm sure we'll all be wishing her a lot of luck.

Q. Again, this summit is so special for women in the sports field, in the business world, to look to other women to be inspired by. It's interesting, though, we don't see these types of summits before the men's championships, before men's tournaments. As wonderful as this is, is the goal one day to be at a place where we don't need to hold summits to inspire, where we just know that the Women's PGA Championship can start the same way the men's can; the WNBA is on the same level the NBA is. This summit is incredible and I'm not taking away from that at all, but is the goal one day to not need to have summits for young women to be around other women to look up to?
HILARY KNIGHT: Yeah, I think it can go both ways. First off, I think it's a great opportunity, and I think that's what makes women's sports a little bit different is that we do have to collaborate right now, and we are in a time and place where we shouldn't necessarily be dropped with media coverage and things like that, but we are having to fight for our place among the men in sport. So in that respect, it would be great to have standalone events and standalone summits, but I think there are some very powerful and valuable insights that are provided at events like this that I don't know if I would ever want it to go away. I think you sort of look at it from both angles. I think from a competitive standpoint, do you want your event to stand alone? Probably, absolutely. But from a nourishment and empowerment standpoint and a collaborative standpoint, I think this event is tremendously valuable.

NANCY KERRIGAN: I absolutely 100 percent agree with that. And there are so many platforms for men already. I'm on an advisory board for the Aurora Games that will be in August of 2019, which is a multiday, multiplatform sports and entertainment event for women. So I agree that -- I mean, it would be nice to just say, we're having an event, but at the same time, communication grows us as individuals and as companies and as the sport -- it helps us to become better. So to have an opportunity like this to get together and bounce ideas off of each other, people were last night meeting each other for the first time and talking and communicating, you can leave with something new that you didn't think of and grow your company. It's so important, I think, communication in all aspects. So I think it's a wonderful thing. I wouldn't take it away, either. It's a great opportunity.

MAIA SHIBUTANI: There's definitely more communication that's possible now through social media, but I think that this event is so unique that it's all in person and it's also being shared online. So moving forward, I think that really no matter what, any opportunity that you have where people can come together and really exchange ideas and be inspired by one another, it's valuable no matter what.

Q. Seeing how far women have come in sports, a lot of us are lucky enough to have a lot of women who came before us to look up to now; when you were first becoming a powerful woman in sports, there may not have been as many women to look up to. But seeing how far women's sports have come, how inspired are you by what we can accomplish in the next 10 years, what the sports field will look like in the next 10 years?
NANCY KERRIGAN: I mean, I can't say what it's going to be, but I'm appreciative of the people that came before me. I mean, look, even without Billie Jean, we probably wouldn't be on TV at all, women in sports. She was like a real groundbreaker for us, and now you have all these -- there's so many more channels and opportunities for people to be seen in different places and different platforms, whether it is on television or internet. There definitely is this movement for women to be seen and be able to be -- have this platform to become better and great.

I think it's an amazing -- I don't know, I think it's an amazing thing to be able to be witness to because I didn't have that. And so -- I mean, I had some of it. There wasn't a lot. And so now it's just so much more important. I mean, I have a young daughter, so for her to be able to see this is amazing.

We do have a problem with like news or like why is everything so negative. She's like, oh, there's five for five or something, like oh, we get five minutes of something positive. And I think when you have a 10 year old noticing that, you know how important it is to have something like this, something positive that they can look at other people to listen to their stories and maybe learn something because that can help inspire and that can create -- I don't know, like a snowball effect. Why can't we have the snowball effect of positivity as opposed to so much negative. Everything is breaking news. First of all, that's crying wolf; if everything is breaking news, what is real breaking news?

It's, I think, so important to see all this going in this positive avenue.

THE MODERATOR: Can we get any of you out on the driving range for some lessons or anything? Is there anything we can do to help out with your golf games? Do any of you spend some time out on the links?

HILARY KNIGHT: No, I like it just because it's totally different from ice hockey in terms of the pace, but the mental game is actually quite similar, which is frustrating, but it's similar. It's a humbling sport, and there's always something to learn, and when I found out someone carries your bag for you, I am like, sign me up. But no, it's a great social event for me. I know my teammates and I go out a lot and we play. But it's also -- it's different, and I like that.

NANCY KERRIGAN: It is frustrating. I played when I was 15 until probably I had a second child, and then I felt kind of guilty because -- oh, can you watch the kids so I can go work, that's one thing, but now can you watch them so I can go play, I felt a little bad. But after falling over 40,000 times in my life, I feel like I'm just too injured at this point and in too much pain. Like swinging a club kills, so unfortunately I don't get to play much. But I like still can putt.

MAIA SHIBUTANI: I have no experience with golf. I've been figure skating for 19 years. But after being here today and everyone has been really friendly and hearing all the positive things about golf, I guess I have to try it soon.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297