Honoring the past. Empowering the future.
Success Starts at Stanford
37 words.
50 years of progress.
1 limitless future.
That’s how long Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 reads. Just 37 words.
Crazy how so few words – one long sentence, really – could fundamentally and seismically change the landscape of sports forever, providing access and opportunity once widely thought to be out of reach. Even crazier? Tthe impact of a sentence whose original intent 50 years ago surely was not centered around a game, and the catalyst for progress it proved to be.
Progress isn’t a straight line. It can be quiet, methodical, or it can come at you in crashing waves. That’s how momentum shifts, too. It’s not always the first hit, the one goal, the singular moment that instantly changes the game.
But it is often the catalyst.
And what follows can be substantial. Monumental. Even transformational.
Sports constantly evolve. The pursuit of excellence is an unending refinement of skill, an unrelenting drive to be better, a competitive fire that challenges the boundaries of the game and evokes an equally impassioned response.
Challenging boundaries? Impassioned response? Sounds like the catalyst for what became Title IX.
And those 37 words served as a catalyst for 50 years worth of progress. Our challenge now is to keep the momentum going. Keep pushing. Keep striving. Keep running. Keep celebrating, championing, uplifting and inspiring girls and women everywhere to do what no one yet knows is possible. Keep leveling up our own expectations.
It has happened time and time again over the past 50 years. It’ll happen again, and when it does, there’s a good chance it’ll happen here.
A History of Excellence
Rewriting the record books time and again, claiming more women’s NCAA titles than any other school in the country. By a lot.
Year after year, Stanford’s women’s sports programs are dotted with the nation’s elite athletes.
A truly staggering number and look no further than the water. Women's Swimming and Diving leads the way with 178 individual NCAA champions, Artistic Swimming accounts for 45 individual national titlists and Lightweight Rowing has contributed 15 individual national medalists.
Taking their talents from The Farm to the global stage, and representing the Cardinal from their place on the podium.
150 Olympic medals have been claimed by Stanford female affiliates. In fact, nearly one third of those have been won over the last two Olympiads, including a school-record 25 medals captured by Cardinal women at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Reaching the pinnacle of one’s sport isn’t easy, but Stanford women have made a habit of it anyway.
*NCAA championship totals as of January 2022.
Time to clear out more room in the trophy case. Or build another one. These teams have collected more hardware than anyone in their sport.
The Cardinal continues to dominate the collegiate landscape as the country's gold standard in Women's Tennis (20), Women's Swimming and Diving (11), Women's Volleyball (9) and Women's Water Polo (8).
THE FACES OF TITLE IX
THE STORIES THAT MAKE US
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