Images provided to TVL by SLUHN from L-R: Mandy Marquardt, Chanelle Price, and Gina Lewandowski.

Whether it’s Simone Biles in gymnastics, Katie Ledecky in the pool, or A’ja Wilson on the basketball court, the eyes of young women everywhere will be riveted on the 2024 Paris Olympics to watch the greatest of all time as well as the up-and-comers who will inspire the next generation of female athletes.

Chanelle Price, Gina Lewandowski and Mandy Marquardt know all about that feeling of being inspired, and of being the inspirations. The three women, all Community Ambassadors with St. Luke’s University Health Network, have had Olympic aspirations and understand the desire, determination, commitment and talent it takes to reach that level.

The accomplishments of all three elite athletes add to St. Luke’s reputation as a sports expertise mecca: Price, an 800-meter runner, won a gold medal at the 2015 Under-23 World Championships, and three gold medals with the U.S. women’s 4×800-meter team at the IAAF World Relays; Lewandowski as a professional soccer player in Europe and the U.S.; and Marquardt as a 27-time U.S. national champion and multiple medalist in international track cycling racing in the sprint disciplines.

Marquardt found out in recent weeks that she did not make the U.S. Olympic Team, but she is thrilled to see the rising interest in women’s sports.

“Sports today are more dynamic and inclusive,” she said. “It’s especially inspiring to see women in sports breaking barriers and setting new records. The Olympics continue to promote unity and bring together global talent. The 2024 Paris Olympics will make history by achieving numerical gender parity on the field of play, meaning there will be equal representation of male and female athletes.”

Lewandowski, who played scholastically at Allentown Central Catholic and starred at Lehigh University before her professional career which included stops at Frankfurt, Bayern Munich and NJ/NY Gotham FC, cited the Lehigh Valley as a grassroots microcosm of what is happening in women’s sports.

“Just looking at soccer, it has grown tremendously since I was younger,” she said. “There are so many more club teams, so many more options to play sports. You see the coverage on TV and social media. There is more interest, more fans, more tickets sold, more sponsorships and partnerships. Any time you’re talking about the Olympics, you’re talking about getting more kids involved in sports and a healthy active lifestyle.”

Price, who rose from Easton High School to set world records and star at the University of Tennessee, won a gold medal at the 2014 Indoor World Championships and competed with the best-of-the-best in the worldwide Diamond League. She is thrilled to see Biles return to gymnastics, and the awareness she has raised for mental health.

“Simone Biles has been a big advocate for the challenges athletes face with mental health,” Price said. “To see her four years later in a better state and speaking about the help she received is invaluable for others facing mental stress. I had mental health struggles in college because of the pressure I had. It’s wonderful to see athletes speak up about it and for people to know it’s OK to ask for help.”

As Community Ambassadors with St. Luke’s, all three women take part in a variety of activities with the public and at sports camps and events to impart not only their expertise, but their personal journeys in achieving not just their best performances, but the best versions of themselves.

Marquardt, who is a Type 1 diabetic, races for Team Novo Nordisk and is pursuing her MBA at Penn State World Campus. She promotes sports, health, wellness, and gratitude.

“Together with St. Luke’s, we are out tin the community and making a difference. My role as an ambassador allows me to advocate for diabetes awareness, inspire others to overcome challenges, and empower young athletes to pursue their dreams,” Marquardt said.

Price, who looked up to Mia Hamm and wanted to play soccer before finally focusing on track, helps put on training clinics “showing the kids how to properly run and how to properly run fast,” and loves giving back to the community in her role as a St. Luke’s Community Ambassador.

“Whatever your goals, whatever your dreams, just go for it,” she said. “The person you become along the way is the true gold medal. I am who I am because of the journey.”

Lewandowski takes part in soccer clinics and community appearances for St. Luke’s while preaching a message of reducing internal pressure.

“I try to tell athletes to slow down,” she said. “Our culture tells us to do more, and that’s not always the best advice. As athletes, you always need to be mindful of how you feel, what your body needs. Whether it’s through meditation or prayer, down time, relaxing, learning be present with yourself and tuning out the technology and the noise and getting back to your why: why you do what you do, why you enjoy it. Finding that balance is the key.”

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest-cost providers.

 

Information and images provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy