Canada Names 30 For National Team Camp To Help Form Olympic Roster
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Cosmopolitan
3 hours ago
- Cosmopolitan
Olympic Equestrian Jessica Springsteen Covers Cosmo Sports, Talks Horses
Welcome to Cosmo Sports, our new series where we get unprecedented, all-day access to some of the most influential names in collegiate and professional athletics. We capture a full day in their lives to give you a deeper sense of who they are, not just what they do. Jessica Springsteen remembers the fear. It was a few months ago during a night competition and she was in the ring with her horse, Don, ready to hurdle over obstacles at top speed. Despite her years competing in equestrian—and having an Olympic silver medal to her name—those jitters steadily crept in and she needed to take a second. 'I was so nervous that I stopped him to calm myself,' she reflects. 'I took a deep he immediately copied me and took a huge deep breath too.' It was no shock that beneath her, Don responded in perfect sync, exhaling with her as if to say, 'We've got this.' 'They're feeling what you are,' says Jessica as she sits in a brightly lit living room (it's the apartment of her boyfriend, a fellow equestrian). 'Those moments just remind me how connected we really are.' A bond like this doesn't happen by chance. 'It can take years to build,' she says, 'and it is actually the most important thing. It's kind of hard to see when you're watching.' For Jessica, who's been an equestrian since she was 5 years old, this isn't just a sport—it's a language of intuition, presence, and connection that's helped her evolve into the woman and competitor we see today. It's taken her from being a shy kid on a New Jersey farm who was too afraid to verbally declare 'I want to go to the Olympics' to actually going to the 2020 Tokyo Games and winning silver in team jumping. Since becoming an Olympic medalist (and trending globally in the aftermath because yes, Jessica is the daughter of Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa), the equestrian has continued to build momentum in the sport. In 2023, she secured wins at the FEI Jumping Nations Cup of USA and the Winter Equestrian Festival, and in 2022 and 2023, she took first place at the ultra-elite Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of London. Just days before we meet on Zoom in August, Jessica was in Valkenswaard, Netherlands, competing at the 2025 Longines Tops International Arena Summer Classic where she ultimately won gold. Most recently, the fierce show jumping competitor was invited to join Longines Global Champions Tour this September in New York City, a competition reserved only for the top-ranked equestrian jumping teams in the world. And in between all this competing and training, she works with Gallop NYC, a therapeutic riding nonprofit that she calls 'incredibly healing.' But her eyes aren't only on the podium. Instead, she's looking inward. 'What I'm working on right now is being a little bit more present and enjoying the process more,' she says. 'I have definitely had moments where I'm really focused on the end result and I'm not enjoying the journey. I think especially as you get older, you can start to put more pressure on yourself.' She's in a chaotic world full of intense travel schedules, big personalities (yes, of both humans and horses), and the humbling truth that no matter how good you are, anything can happen in the ring. But still, she thrives. Because when Jessica Springsteen takes a deep breath before a competition, her horse takes one too. That's not just training—it's trust. It started because my mom had always wanted to ride. When she was younger, she was horse crazy, but she never had the chance to do it. We moved to a farm in New Jersey and she started taking lessons. When I saw her do it, I wanted to as well, and then it just escalated. It naturally happened that it was jumping, which is really funny because I was terrified of jumping when I was younger. I was always truly terrified of jumping but I still never thought, I'm not going to do this. It was always, I'm doing it anyway. But I had so much fear. I still get nervous, but I don't have that fear for my life that I did. Looking back, I'm like, Wow, I'm proud of her. It's really funny because I don't consider myself competitive. Whenever I say that, my friends and family are like, 'No, you're competitive.' But I don't see it within myself. I try to psych myself down, even before a big competition where people are going really fast, like, Oh, I'm just gonna take it easy, and then I get in there and I go full out. I don't know if it's my way of calming myself down, but once I'm in the ring and I hear that bell go off, I go into another zone. It's so similar because it has so much to do with timing and precision. With horses, it's a lot of managing your nerves because you don't want the horse to pick up on them. A little bit ago, I started visualizing my course, how I wanted it to feel, and imagined it going. Of course, things don't always go according to plan, but I found that it really helped me stay calm. I focus on what I can control. I did that for such a long time. I read a few books that helped me be more intentional about not doing that. That really helped me find a lot more of my confidence. One is called The Champion's Mind. I went through it and I would highlight passages that really spoke to me before a big competition. Your mind is everything. In all sports, there is a huge mental component. Whenever I talk about riding, a lot of people think I'm racing. I feel like that's what people jump to—that I'm racing or doing dressage. [Editor's note: Dressage—sometimes called 'the ballet of horseback riding'—requires a rider and horse to perform a series of elegant movements together. Think: less obstacle jumping, more controlled routines.] But I think that people ultimately don't understand the partnership of you and your horse, what goes into that, and how important it is. It's completely different for each horse. Sometimes I have that instant gel where you just get each other from the get-go, but most of the time, it takes longer. Once you have that bond, though, it's the best feeling. And I feel like that's where sensitivity really plays a big role. I have three horses: Don, Naomi, and Cayman. Don, my horse that I went to the Olympics on, is my heart. I've had him for six years now, and he is the happiest horse. You walk into the barn and he whinnies at you. He wants attention and he's always so much fun to compete with. You really feel the joy in him. Naomi is also amazing. She's so competitive. She really gives you that extra inch. We finally gelled this past year. It took so much time. Cayman…I'm still working to figure out. We get it sometimes and then the next round, I'm like, What just happened? I didn't expect that. He is so unpredictable and really keeps me and my team guessing. He has so much personality, and sometimes he'll just do the craziest things. You have to laugh at it. He's so funny. I made the most amazing relationships in college with people who have become my lifelong friends. Having that outside of the riding has been incredible for me. We're a seven-minute voice note crew, like literally we will send books back and forth to each other that way. It's the best way to stay in touch, especially with different time zones, because then you can just respond whenever. That's a good question. I'd say I'm a listener. I love hearing whatever is going on in someone's life and trying to be as supportive as possible. I'm definitely the least organized and the worst planner of the group, so they are the ones who are like, 'Okay, you're gonna be in New York this week, we're gonna do this.' That's what I need in my life—someone who is gonna take the wheel. I'm not super into astrology, but I'm a Capricorn, which is supposed to be so Type A. I don't see those qualities in myself, but I would love to be more organized and leading the way. My most Type A quality is that I got this five-year journal—it's short, just half a page every day—and since I started, I have not missed a day. Before I go to sleep, I don't care what happened that day, I will write in my journal. I'm proud to say I've been really consistent with it. That and washing my face before bed. That's a must after riding all day. I will get home from a trip and leave a suitcase packed for, like, way too long. Or I'll leave things in packing cubes forever because they're kind of organized that way. The cubes are out and I'm like, Okay, that kind of works, let's just leave them to the side for now. It's been really great for me. It's so nice to be able to share the sport with someone. It involves so much traveling and you are on your own so much, so to be able to do it together is the best thing ever. He's so positive, supportive, and mentally strong. Sometimes you feel like you're the only person having strong feelings, but everyone has them. I can kind of say any crazy thought or feeling I'm having and he's just like, 'Okay, let's figure this out.' He has been really grounding for me in that sense. He is so kind and probably the least judgmental person I've ever met. How would you describe yourself as an athlete? I think sensitivity can be seen as a weakness in sports, but in mine, I'm able to really pick up on what my horses are feeling, so in that sense, I would say sensitive in a good way. I've really worked on my mental strength these past couple years, and I try to really enjoy myself every time I go out there, so I think joyful too. I'm super protective of my horses, so I always want to make sure that they're feeling 100 percent whenever they go in the ring. But I've been told so many times that I'm overly sensitive. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. I think that when you're working really hard at something and you have ups and downs, it can be really emotional. I think in our sport, being able to really feel what your horse is feeling is important. In the months leading up to the 2020 Olympics and working hard to make that team, there was a moment where I really had to build my inner confidence. I had to find those tools, because I hadn't really dug into them as much. I had always relied on external validation. But there was a big moment for me where I was like, 'Okay, I really need to build up my confidence without that.' I was reading another book that said, 'You have to believe in yourself before you've done the hard thing. You have to believe you can do it before you have the proof you actually can.' It spoke to me. Building self-belief was something I worked on really hard. And then it happened! Being an athlete at the Olympics, what was exactly the way you thought it would be, and what was not at all the way you thought it would be? Being able to be on the competitive circuit since I was about 18 or 19, I felt comfortable when I got there. I was like, Okay, this is another competition. These are people I've competed against throughout my career. But I didn't realize how quickly everything would happen. They were actually using a new format that year. Normally, you have four riders and one score doesn't count. But in 2020, they switched to only three riders, and every score counted, so things were changing really quickly. It all happened so fast. I remember just watching and all of a sudden, it was like, 'Oh my gosh, wait, we're getting a medal.' I wasn't expecting how quickly it goes. You work so hard for months and months and months leading up to it, and then it was over. It took me a long time to process it. It was my biggest dream come true. When I was young, I never wanted to say out loud, 'I want to go to the Olympics' because I felt like it was too big of a dream for me. So having that become a reality was just such a proud moment. When I got back home, my family planned this celebration and it was going to be super small, but then at the last minute, everyone was like, 'We're coming, this is a huge deal.' Being around everyone who had been part of my journey? Yeah, that's when it really hit me. The best part about milestones like the Olympics is that you can share them with the people you love. This sport is very humbling. You can go in one week and have the most incredible week, and then the next week it can all go downhill. I've had many ups and downs, but it's also amazing because you're able to have such a long career in this sport, which I think is rare. I'm grateful for that, but I think it also makes those moments of success so much sweeter. And not just for me either—it's my whole team working together to make these moments happen. Day in and day out, it doesn't feel any less exciting or fulfilling than it did when I was young. I have this oversized leather bomber jacket that I actually have to stop wearing because it's on me every day. When I ordered it online, I was like, 'I'm never gonna wear this.' I almost returned it, and now I literally wear it everywhere and anywhere. It's from Revolve and it is just so comfortable and has a million pockets. It makes my outfits look so much cooler. I was looking up a horse that I saw somewhere, and I was looking for crystals online. Zac Efron in High School Musical. I was in love. Probably not that many, should I check? I mostly WhatsApp. Okay, yes, only five texts and 20 WhatsApps. No, my little brother literally has, like, 450 unread messages. I'm just like, 'How?' Oh my gosh, I have a few. The Kardashians, if I had to pick one. But I also love Real Housewives. I loved the old New York ones, but I love all of them. I'll try to wear the same necklace, and I will listen to Taylor Swift. Before, when I was doing the Olympic trials, me and my friend put on a Taylor Swift song before every trial that we had. That was, like, our thing. I also have a couple lucky shirts that I rotate. I can't! I can't pick just one. Midnights! I did. It was everything and more.
4 hours ago
Ilona Maher wants America to fall in love with rugby during Women's World Cup
SUNDERLAND, England -- Ilona Maher's mission at the Women's Rugby World Cup is about more than just winning games. Heading into the United States' tournament opener on Friday, the world's most followed rugby player on social media wants to get more eyeballs on the sport as it ramps up attempts to crack the market in America. 'Not many people know that there's a Women's Rugby World Cup going on, so we try to get as many people as we can to spread that knowledge,' Maher said ahead of the match against host England in the World Cup curtain-raiser in Sunderland. 'We want the fans in America to see us play here because we've got a World Cup there in eight years and we need to start building for that.' Rugby authorities see America as a vital new market for the sport. The United States will stage the men's Rugby World Cup in 2031 and the women's tournament in 2033. The presence of Maher is key to attracting attention on rugby in the U.S., given she has 5.2 million followers on Instagram and 3.6 million on TikTok — platforms on which she promotes body positivity. The 29-year-old Vermont native believes she and her teammates are 'changing the game on and off the field a lot.' 'This is a time where women's rugby is in a state where it could grow massively,' she said, 'and I do believe this team is at the forefront with how we present ourselves and people's perception of us.' Maher certainly stands out, having been named as the best breakthrough athlete at the ESPYs last month. In an interview with the BBC ahead of the World Cup, she said she has been approached by the WWE — joking that her ring name would be 'Maher-vellous' if she ever became a wrestler — and that she'd love to get into acting. First, though, she wants to deliver at the World Cup, starting with the match in front of 40,000 spectators against England, the tournament favorite, in the north of the country. A star in rugby sevens, in which she won a bronze medal with the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics last year, Maher also had a three-month stint at English club Bristol in the 15 players-a-team format at the start of 2025. 'I think it's so cool,' Maher said, 'that we're up here, so far away from maybe where rugby union is big, and yet we're getting 40,000 people out to a game.' The Americans also will play Australia and Samoa in Pool A at the World Cup.
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
‘Trust' is at the center of Dani Busboom Kelly's new era of Nebraska volleyball
LINCOLN, Neb. — The only returning first-team selection among four All-Americans back on the Nebraska volleyball roster, Andi Jackson, received an invite to compete this summer with the United States as part of the Volleyball Nations League. The annual tournament serves as a training ground for the best players in the world. The opportunity for Jackson to play for U.S. national team coach Erik Sullivan could have been pivotal in her bid to make the Olympic squad ahead of the Los Angeles Games in 2028. Advertisement Jackson turned it down after consulting with Dani Busboom Kelly, Nebraska's first-year coach. 'I was super excited and humbled,' Jackson said. 'But there's just a time and a place for everything. Right now, my commitment is to this team. When I talked to Erik Sullivan, I thanked him. But I told him, right now, it's my first priority to win a national championship.' Such an action requires trust. Trust in Jackson's teammates. And trust in Busboom Kelly, the 40-year-old former Nebraska national champion as a player and an assistant coach who returned home in January after the retirement of her mentor, four-time national champ John Cook, to take over the most high-profile program in college volleyball. At the center of Busboom Kelly's first seven months back in Lincoln stands a pillar of trust that she worked hurriedly to build. She has made an imprint, marked by some changes of a subtle nature and others more bold. Whatever she does, a rabid fan base watches every move. Busboom Kelly, as a Nebraska native and the new caretaker of this state's most prized sporting possession, is in higher demand than third-year football coach Matt Rhule. 'I love the fact that she's who she is,' Rhule said. 'She is just so comfortable in her own self.' Her first team, ranked No. 1 in the preseason, opens Friday at 6 p.m. CT on Fox against No. 3 Pittsburgh in the AVCA First Serve Showcase. The Huskers host No. 6 Stanford on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN as part of the same event. Both matches long ago sold out Pinnacle Bank Arena, Nebraska's 15,500-seat basketball venue. The Huskers normally play at the 8,309-seat Devaney Center. They've sold out 337 consecutive home matches, a record for NCAA women's sports, including the August 2023 spectacle at Memorial Stadium that drew a crowd of 92,003, the largest in the world to watch a women's sporting event. Advertisement This month, the Huskers sold out their arena for an intrasquad scrimmage and an exhibition against alumni. The volleyball program generated more than $7 million in revenue in 2023-24, the most recent fiscal year for which data is available. More than $2 million came from ticket sales, placing it in a class with only UConn basketball among women's sports, and Nebraska volleyball was the only women's program to turn a profit. This is what Busboom Kelly inherited. It's what Nebraska trusts her not to maintain — but to build upon and make better. If the Nebraska and Penn State teams that met in the Final Four last December could replay the fourth set of their semifinal match from the point when the Huskers led 22-16, Nebraska might win nine out of 10 times. But in the only instance it was actually contested, Penn State stormed back to take it 28-26, then outlasted the Huskers 15-13 in the decisive fifth set. How, as a returning cornerstone for Nebraska, does a player reconcile such a harsh reality? It requires accepting the truth, said Bergen Reilly, the Huskers' junior second-team All-American and two-time Big Ten setter of the year. It takes accepting what Busboom Kelly observed about those tense times late in the Nebraska-Penn State match. She saw it unfold in person, as the Louisville coach whose team had upset Pitt in the earlier semifinal and awaited the winner. Busboom Kelly said she has re-watched the video of the final points of Nebraska's 2024 season many times. 'Fear was coming in,' Busboom Kelly said on Terry Pettit's 'Inside the Coaching Mind' podcast. 'And a lack of leadership really came out in those big moments.' Without hesitation, Reilly agreed. 'It's the honest truth,' she said. 'We needed people to step up, including myself, and we didn't. And that was ultimately the result.' Advertisement She's heard the critique from her new coach. 'She is going to say what she thinks,' Reilly said. 'But it's not said in a way to put us down. When she does have to express the hard truths, we know that it's said out of love. That's a good coach.' In her first practices this spring with the Huskers, Busboom Kelly said she watched balls hit the floor in ways that reminded her of the Huskers' finish last year against Penn State. Over time, they built trust on the court. Leadership has blossomed. 'They're hungry,' Busboom Kelly said. 'They're motivated. You don't ever feel like you have to push them in practice. When you come to work, you feel like everybody is excited to be here and ready to work. There's no tug and pull or pushing that I have to do.' Busboom Kelly was named national coach of the year in 2021. She directed Louisville to national championship matches in 2022 and 2024. In her last four of eight seasons with the Cardinals, her record of 120-15 outpaced Nebraska's Cook, who was 118-19 over the same time. At Nebraska, Busboom Kelly coaches the setters — a job that Cook delegated to assistant coach Kelly (Hunter) Natter. Busboom Kelly retained Cook's full staff, and none of the nine players with remaining eligibility left the team. Natter's responsibilities expanded into other realms. Reilly embraced the changes. 'It sucks, but Louisville made it farther than we did last year,' Reilly said. 'She does things different than (Cook), but she's really successful. So it's just trusting that. After last season, I thought I needed a change. I wanted something a little different.' Conversations with Busboom Kelly, according to Reilly, are a two-way street. The coach's communication style encourages feedback. It promotes trust. And with the roster that Busboom Kelly has assembled, trust is a must. Cook, in 25 seasons at Nebraska, won 15 conference titles and 87.5 percent of his matches. He preferred a roster of 12 to 14 players. Last year, with possibly the deepest group of talent he'd gathered, Nebraska finished 33-3. It wasn't enough for Busboom Kelly. She expanded the roster from 14 to 17. The eight newcomers include a pair of freshmen, outside hitter Teraya Sigler and setter Campbell Flynn, who was named the top player in high school a year ago, and 6-foot-5 Italian opposite hitter Virginia Adriano. She played professionally in her country against the highest level of competition last year. Advertisement The aim for Busboom Kelly is not simply to field the best team. She voted Nebraska at the top spot in her poll. Her reaction to the Huskers' No. 1 ranking? 'I'm not surprised,' she said. Feeling good. #GBR — Dani Busboom Kelly (@danib18) August 14, 2025 Her objective? To make the Huskers better at every position on the court than all of their opponents. It means relying on more than one setter, more than two middle blockers and two outside hitters, more than one libero and opposite hitter. 'If they can all buy in that they're getting opportunities every day and pushing each other and that each person on this team matters,' Busboom Kelly said, 'that's the strongest team in December. Our team is starting to buy into that.' Renee Saunders has won nine consecutive state championships in Nebraska's second-largest high school classification as the coach at Omaha Skutt Catholic. She played on the first Nebraska national championship team in 1995. And she has watched the entirety of Busboom Kelly's career. 'Her consistency and demeanor on the sideline, I think all coaches should aspire to that,' Saunders said. 'She gets that the game should be fun and competitive at the same time.' The Huskers elected Reilly, Jackson and senior Rebekah Allick as captains. Junior Harper Murray returns as a two-time All-American and perhaps the most complete outside hitter in the Big Ten. Adriano smashed six kills on 10 swings without an error in the alumni match. To complement her play, Baylor transfer Allie Sczech, twice a second-team All-Big 12 pick, packs a lefty swing on the right side. Nebraska is deep in the back row, with four specialists, led by Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch, either of whom could earn all-conference recognition as a libero. And at every position, freshmen appear Big Ten-ready. Advertisement Yes, Busboom Kelly's initial impact is evident up and down the Nebraska roster. 'It's what Anson Dorrance, the great women's soccer coach at North Carolina, used to talk about — the cauldron of competition,' Rhule said. 'If you want to be the best, you've got to beat out the best. To me, that's what she's trying to do.' Busboom Kelly is set to substitute more freely than Cook. Her system employs a slightly faster pace and more creativity, which demands risk. These Huskers, if the message from their new coach resonates as she intends, won't be afraid to fail. 'Ultimate trust,' Jackson said. 'We talk about it a lot. It will make or break a team.' Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
