--- title: HK Poet's Inspiring Speech About Being a Woman Athlete description: She gave a rhythmic, emotional opus about what it means to be an athlete and a woman. canonical: https://time.com/4210841/female-football-player-inspiring-speech-2/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-06T21:38:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:29:46.012Z og:title: HK Poet's Inspiring Speech About Being a Woman Athlete og:description: She gave a rhythmic, emotional opus about what it means to be an athlete and a woman. og:url: https://time.com/4210841/female-football-player-inspiring-speech-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08d1331fbe17dd08/69887c79a988ca42666b6787/screen-shot-2016-02-06-at-4-26-26-pm.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2016-02-06 at 4.26.26 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: HK Poet's Inspiring Speech About Being a Woman Athlete twitter:description: She gave a rhythmic, emotional opus about what it means to be an athlete and a woman. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08d1331fbe17dd08/69887c79a988ca42666b6787/screen-shot-2016-02-06-at-4-26-26-pm.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch This Female Football Player's Inspiring Speech About Being a Woman Athlete by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Feb 6, 2016 9:38 PM UTC  Youtube by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Feb 6, 2016 9:38 PM UTC Most of the speakers at the National Football League’s [first-ever](http://time.com/4208631/nfl-womens-summit-super-bowl/) [women’s summit](http://www.nflwomenssummit.com/) gave plain old talks on Thursday, with the exception of Holly K. Peterson. The women’s tackle football player, charter school athletic director and spoken word artist known as “HK Poet” took the stage either side of big names like Condoleezza Rice and Billie Jean King—and still may have gotten the biggest round of applause for her rhythmic, emotional opus about what it means to be an athlete and a woman. The summit took place over two days in San Francisco leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl, with speakers explaining what sports mean to them and why that common endeavor may be a key factor in crafting the next generation of women leaders. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4210841/female-football-player-inspiring-speech-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4210841/female-football-player-inspiring-speech-2/"},"headline":"Watch This Female Football Player's Inspiring Speech About Being a Woman Athlete","datePublished":"2016-02-06T21:38:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:46.012Z","description":"She's also a spoken-word artist","url":"https://time.com/4210841/female-football-player-inspiring-speech-2/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08d1331fbe17dd08/69887c79a988ca42666b6787/screen-shot-2016-02-06-at-4-26-26-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08d1331fbe17dd08/69887c79a988ca42666b6787/screen-shot-2016-02-06-at-4-26-26-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2016-02-06 at 4.26.26 PM","caption":"","creditText":"Youtube","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4210841/female-football-player-inspiring-speech-2/","name":"Watch This Female Football Player's Inspiring Speech About Being a Woman Athlete"}}]}] ```