Dublin native will bring home an award from the 2025 ESPYs
Dublin native will bring home an award from the 2025 ESPYs
Dublin native and Girls4Sports founder Maegha Ramanathan will be winning the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award at the ESPYs on July 16th.
DUBLIN, Calif. - Maegha Ramanathan from Dublin will be one of three honorees to accept the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership award at the 2025 ESPYs.
She said she received sexist comments as a swimmer which inspired her to make a difference.
That's when she decided to become the founder of a youth non-profit called Girls4sports that's dedicated to empowering girls and developing their leadership.
"I started to reach out to my district superintendent and my school principal, who were all super supportive of the work I was doing and started spreading awareness about it and, through that, it became a really big club and organization inside of Dublin and, from there, we were able to grow nationally" said Ramanathan.
By the numbers:
Ramanathan said Girls4sports has integrated more than 30,000 girls into 250 sports programs, and has donated more than 10,000 pieces of sports equipment to children's homes, hospitals, and teams.
"Recently, we donated to teams in Kenya, Lesotho, and Uganda, where we are able to spread our work more than nationwide, but internationally as well. But beyond the recognition that I've been getting, we're about the network that I've been able to find through these communities and to be able to meet some great young change-makers who've been able to bolster the work that we're doing at Girls4sports" said Ramanathan.
Since Ramanathan will be on the red carpet with some of the greatest athletes in sports, she plans to take full advantage to network and meet her heroes.
"Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark, as well as many important female athletes who have broken stereotypes and have accomplished so much" said Ramanathan.
If you would like to watch Ramanathan's full interview, you can find it on the Hometown Heroes link:
Hometown Heroes: Maegha Ramanathan
Dublin native and Girls4Sports founder Maegha Ramanathan joins KTVU sports reporter Keshawn Ward for a new episode of Hometown Heroes. She will be winning the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award at the ESPYs on July 16th. Ramanathan founded Girls4Sports, a youth-led nonprofit based in Dublin that's dedicated to expanding access to sports for underserved girls while addressing gender inequality in athletics.