Nikki Hiltz & Gabby Thomas on Track, Paychecks & Representation: LIVE from SXSW

A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe

The Vox Media Podcast Network

Soccer, Sports, Basketball

4.4 • 611 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we’re coming to you straight from SXSW in Austin, where we sat down with two of the fastest people on the planet—Olympic track stars Nikki Hiltz and Gabby Thomas. But first, we’ll check in on where women’s sports stand today and what needs to happen to keep the momentum going for the next 100 years. We’re talking investment, Gen Alpha’s sports habits, and why women’s sports constantly have to break records just to prove their worth. Then, Nikki and Gabby get real about life as pro track athletes—how they actually make money, the highs and lows of competing in an individual sport, and, of course, who’s faster? They also weigh in on what needs to change to make women’s sports safer and better for everyone, plus why trans athlete representation is more important than ever. And to wrap it up, we put them through a few rounds of Bench/Start/Cut and settle this week’s Are You a Megan or Are You a Sue: do you fall asleep with the TV on or off? A Touch More: The Podcast is produced in partnership with VOX MEDIA and TOGETHXR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've ruled out uni because I want to live at home.
0:02.0	I've ruled out uni because I want to earn money.
0:05.0	I've ruled out uni because of my grades.
0:10.0	Study with the Open University and there's no need to rule out anything.
0:13.0	With our respected degrees, you can learn from home and work alongside study.
0:17.0	We're open to all. Plus, you'll have the support of expert tutors. So rethink your
0:23.6	future with the degree you didn't think was possible. The Open University. The future is open.
0:33.3	Welcome to a touch more live, everybody, from South by Southwest.
0:38.4	We are thrilled to be here.
0:40.6	We are here on the Vox Media podcast stage presented by SmartSheet.
0:45.9	And a big thanks to L'Ot-L-Paris, our Touchmore sponsor for sponsoring this live show.
0:51.0	We're going to get right into it.
0:52.8	We haven't had a ton of time to explore, admittedly, because we just got here late last night. But I did get a breakfast taco this morning. You did. You were very excited. I be lined it right to it. I had to. I know. We do love coming to Austin, although I imagine it's tough for some of the Longhorn fans, Women's Basketball. He took the L today. Oh, didn't go good. I didn't see. Yeah. I mean, you lost the coin toss.
0:54.4	Dang. That was tough and then lost the SEC championship. But you'll be a number one seat. You'll be a number one seat. How does that work? It's called the NCAA tournament. You just get lost to get a selection show. All right. It's a whole thing. Okay. This is crazy. You're going to have to tell me about this later. If you listen to our podcast, you know we like to discuss all the ways in which Sue and I are dramatically different. We will have one of those tonight. It's a nighttime go-to-sleep issue. How do you to sleep are you Megan are you Sue we're going to
1:44.7	ask for your participation in this at some point um so just stay tuned and we also have two
1:51.9	amazing guests for you Nikki Hiltz is here Gabby Thomas is here yep well um we'll put them through an
1:59.8	interview and then some games we We love to play games.
2:02.5	So, yeah, we do. We're going to dive into some of the biggest issues and biggest topics in women's
2:09.7	sports. Everything is popping off as it has been for the whole last year. So we're excited to talk
2:15.5	about those things. With that, I'm Megan Rapino.
2:20.1	And I'm Sue Burr.
2:21.3	This is a touch more.
	...

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