Athletic Inspirations - a different AI

September 19, 2025

AI Redefined as Athletic Inspiration
 
Dear Friends,

Are you as weary as I am with the onslaught of media – both positive and negative – about our future with AI? If so, join me as I recount some recent encounters that I am relabeling as AI: Athletic Inspiration.

I had coffee on Monday morning with Christine Yan, whom we helped find a first board. (She is now on four and chairs committees on all of them.) Something she said spurred me to get up from my seat at the NYC Harvard Club, duck behind a big leather couch and show her how I do push-ups. Something spurred Christine to video me. I regularly do 25 “proper” push-ups (no knees) but did just 10 for this impromptu demo. See Christine’s video below, and please note, speaking of athletic inspirations, she has a 13 handicap in golf.

I got into push-ups years ago when I first met (now retired) Two Star Air Force General Suzanne (Zan) Vautrinot. Many of you now know Zan as a maven of the corporate boardroom, but back then we were preparing her for her first ever board interview just as she was retiring. While discussing how to translate her military experience into corporate speak, I asked how women in the armed forces keep up with the physical activities of men, particularly their subordinates. The talk turned to push-ups, and I thought to myself, “If Zan can do push-ups, so can I.”   

Back to Monday’s breakfast, Christine sent the push-up video to another legend in the board world, Shellye Archambeau because we both know of Shellye’s athletic prowess. Earlier this year, Shellye and I compared notes about our exercise regimens. She has one, I do not. Still, I bragged about being able to do 20 push-ups. She told me she could do 25. We agreed to set higher goals for ourselves- 25 for me and 30 for her by yearend. I’m proud to report we have both achieved our goals!

At lunch that very same Monday, one of my guests, Alisa Cohn, told us that she can do eight reps deadlifting 215 pounds. My son, who is into weightlifting, confirmed how awesome this is. (He also enjoyed Alisa’s LinkedIn posts. She coaches start-up CEOs.) Alisa, who is in her early 50s, uses her birthday as a goal post for progress each year. This year her stretch goal is a whopping 250 pounds! I’m going to text her on October 20th to see how she fared.

Yesterday, I was speaking with Michelle Lee, veteran of many public and private boards, who is brilliant and expert in so many areas, including technology and government regulations. I was sure she would best me on the topic of my AI and she did, but with a twist. Michelle has helped the NFL innovatively leverage AI (the real one) to increase their players’ health and safety. For example, using computer vision and AI models, the NFL can predict the probability and severity of a concussion based upon the speed, angle and location on the body of impact, allowing the player to be taken off the field when needed. Less critical, but quite entertaining, Michelle told us AI models trained on decades of proprietary football data allow NFL announcers to forecast whether a pass will be caught, a QB will be sacked, or a kick will go through the uprights. Despite her prowess with AI, I suspect she is out there in Menlo Park doing a few push-ups right now.

While these stories are female-centric, we hope to hear from all our readers – men and women – about your athletic inspirations. And feel free to weigh in on whether I set a goal of 30 push-ups by my birthday this year (Nov 20) or “push it” to my 70th in 2026.