Bet you didn’t know that playing sports frequently lays the foundation for women’s entrepreneurial success, according to From elite female athletes to exceptional leaders: For all the places sport will take you. Participation in sports correlates with leadership success. A whopping 80% of women executives played sports growing up, and 69% said sports helped them develop leadership skills that contributed to their professional success, according to From the Locker Room to the Boardroom: A Survey on Sports in the Lives of Women Business Executives.

Katarina Witt, two-time Olympic champion, is one such leader. She was the closing keynote speaker at the We Own it Summit, a conference advocating, promoting, and accelerating high-growth entrepreneurship for women. This year it was held in Philly and was convened by the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) and The Collaborative. I had good fortune to talk with Witt at the event.