A US soccer icon says women athletes no longer have to 'shut up and be grateful' for bare minimum

• Former USWNT captain Julie Foudy thinks women's sports have reached "a tipping point."
• No longer do women athletes need to "shut up and be grateful," the 1999 World Cup champion says.

Women's sports have come a long way since Julie Foudy's glory days with the US Women's National Team.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Cup champion — most notably with the 1999 USWNT that won soccer's biggest tournament on American soil — remembers when women in sports were expected to "be grateful that you have this opportunity and sit down and shut up and stop asking for more things."

No longer.

With interest in women's sports surging and leagues having more resources at their disposal than ever before, the ESPN commentator told Insider that she believes "we're at a tipping point for women's sports."

"In a really good way," Foudy added. "I do think that we're in a place now with women's sports where you don't have to just sit down and shut up and be grateful you have a league."

Even still, there's more work to be done, and Foudy knows it. Just because women in sports have more opportunities than ever before doesn't mean they have enough.

"It's important still to have conversations that align with a lot of the things that we fought for a long time — we being a lot of women and athletes in the space," Foudy said. "And to celebrate the organizations that are helping to elevate those conversations and that are doing good work in this space."

That's where Hudl and WeCoach come into play. The two organizations are joining forces to put on the BreakThrough Summit — an annual, free series of seminars and conversations "designed to develop and celebrate women in sports," according to its website.

Foudy will participate in the 2021 summit on Tuesday afternoon. She'll speak with ESPN's LaChina Robinson beginning at 3:10 ET about how far women's sports have come and where they should go next.

Moving forward requires understanding the past, the longtime USWNT captain contends. And far too few understand the foundation upon which women's sports are built in the United States: Title IX.

"It's something that's not taught," Faudy said. "It's one of the most profound civil rights laws, and yet we don't teach it in our schools. It's not part of the curriculum. And it makes me sad that it's not, because I do think it should be discussed and talked about and celebrated."

"The fact that there's such a lack of awareness at the youth level of what it is and what it's done is really sad," she added.

Foudy wants to push women's sports, and women in sports, to new heights. Now that she's a co-owner of a professional women's soccer team — NWSL expansion club Angel City FC — the USWNT great hopes that she and the entire Los Angeles ownership group can set the example of what a professional women's sports franchise should look like.

"We're hopefully building something that is sustainable for the long term and is going to garner a lot of investments and good ownership groups and deep pockets so that people see there's a return on investment," Foudy said. "I think that the numbers are showing that we're at that tipping point."

"And I think it's a good time for women's sports."