One of the most decorated players in women’s basketball history, Lindsay Whalen spoke on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Superior Wednesday evening.

Whalen’s incredible athletic career as a former U.S. olympian, professional basketball player and coach made her uniquely qualified to be the keynote speaker at the inaugural Cenovus Energy – Women in leadership program.

UWS and Cenovus are partnering to help develop the next generation of female leaders in Superior and the entire region. Coach whalen telling the young women in attendance Wednesday night that in order to grow you have to be teachable, able to take take advice and apply it and never shy away from healthy competition.

“I think for me, healthy competition was always good,” Whalen said. “I think as women you can get a little competitive with a lot of comparison. But I think healthy competition is really good.”

Whalen was an outstanding player, winning four WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx, two olympic gold medals with the U.S. women’s basketball team, and was head coach at the University of Minnesota for four seasons.

Success in anything doesn’t usually come without hard work and plenty of ups and downs. “I think like anybody, before you can have success at a really high level, there has to be a certain amount of learning and adversity or failure,” Whalen said.

Whalen said he hopes to continue to inspire women and girls through events like Wednesday night’s Cenovus Women in Leadership event.