“I had something to prove,” Sharon Stone tells PEOPLE
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Sharon-Stone-SiriusXM-2026-092426-56dfd7f8cc7f4b589b61acfb4347c690.jpg "Sharon Stone visits SiriusXM Studios on April 01, 2026 in New York City.")
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NEED TO KNOW
- At Variety’s 2026 Power of Women event in Beverly Hills, Sharon Stone reflected on fighting for a place in high school sports
- She recalled making the boys’ golf team and pushing for opportunities for girls to compete
- The Euphoria actress also discussed Sydney Sweeney’s controversial Novig sports betting ad
Sharon Stone has always been one to champion women’s sports.
While discussing Euphoria costar Sydney Sweeney’s headline-making sports betting campaign at Variety’s 2026 Power of Women event, the 68-year-old actress tells PEOPLE that she has always tried to “be a cheerleader for the women who have made it through and become champions in women’s sports.”
In fact, she reveals that, in high school, she confronted her administrators and demanded they let her try out for the boys’ golf team after realizing there weren’t any sports teams for women at the school.
Her experience became about more than making a team — it was about proving that girls deserved one of their own.
Credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
“I had to go to the school and tell them I was going to sue them if they didn’t let me try out for the boys’ golf club,” she recalls at the Sept. 23 event in Los Angeles.
Although Stone says she made the team, she later quit “because they didn’t want a girl on their team.”
“But I still made the boys’ team, right, because I had something to prove,” she shares. “I had to prove that they needed a girls’ golf team, which they did.”
Credit: Maya Dehlin Spach/FilmMagic
Looking back, she framed the experience as part of a larger fight for opportunities that women had long been denied. When explaining why she continues to speak up for women who have pushed through those barriers, Stone points to the sacrifices behind the progress in women’s sports.
“There are too many powerful women who have fought too hard with their bodies and their blood, sweat, and tears to break that glass ceiling,” Stone emphasizes. “And guess what? The ceiling’s broken.”
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