Women Who Win: Samantha Santaniello
May 18, 2018
The D10's Women Who Win series, brought to you in collaboration with ADAY, spotlights some of the incredible female athletes who take to The D10's playing field each year. Meet Point72 Associate Samantha Santaniello.
Four years ago, I was working at Point72 with eight men (some former pro and collegiate athletes) who were thinking about signing up for The D10. They convinced me to do the same. Little did I expect, NONE of them actually pulled the trigger to compete. I couldn’t do a single pull-up, had never benched, had never even really trained for anything similar to this before. However, I took comfort knowing that this was a charity event that raised money for pediatric cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering. It’s a cause that’s close to my heart, as my grandmother and a close friend of mine both passed from rare cancers.
The D10’s impact on my life has been threefold.
Staying Fit and Active
I swam competitively for 18 years – through college. After I graduated, I competed in triathlons and did an occasional Kayla Itsines workout (LOL). When I decided to compete in The D10, I hadn’t lifted heavy weights in about 1.5 years. I had an amazing trainer who reintroduced the basics and gave me a ridiculous program to follow. I became hooked. Training for The D10 keeps me motivated to exercise intensely each day and recover appropriately. You get so many benefits from rigorous exercise – ‘sweat away your stress’ is a REAL thing. When I stay active, I feel more prepared and more mentally resourceful in tackling my packed to-do list.
Building Confidence
As women, our confidence is challenged daily – in the workplace, on social media, etc. I always knew I was smart and athletic, but being truly confident goes beyond that – it is knowing your worth, believing in your ability to take action and succeed, and knowing you are resilient enough to rise above failures or obstacles. So how do you work towards that? I think of confidence and leadership as muscles that you have to work on with the same effort, intensity, and grit that you do to build up glutes or biceps in the gym. Putting myself in uncomfortable situations is the key for me – at first, that was signing up and competing in The D10. Training for The D10 helped me feel all the good feels from exercise, which eventually translated into how I carried myself at work, at the Junior League, or within The D10 community. Constantly forcing myself to get out of my comfort zone led me to do things like ask to be on The D10 board and self-elect for leadership roles in the NYJL. From there, I found myself asking for more opportunities at work – more work, different types of work, teaching myself to code, leading meetings, and building a robust network. Every time you force yourself to do something, you get better at it. Your whole mental state changes – you view both your successes and failures as opportunities to learn and grow. Exercise your confidence and leadership muscles every damn day.
Finding a Tribe
What does this even mean? Well, I always had a solid group of girlfriends throughout high school and college. People change, though. The single most difficult and unexpected issue I had after I graduated was trying to come to terms with the fact that you change and your friends change. Have you ever heard that you start to become like the 5 people you spend the most time with? I wanted a group of women who were like me – wanting to grow and challenge themselves constantly – and it was so difficult to meet these types of women until I signed up for The D10. I met four of my closest friends from competing in The D10 – they are my TRIBE. They are women who are fiercely independent, positive but also realistic, and they are women who will always give me an honest assessment of who I am and where I’m at. And they expect the same from me. I see the same in every new female competitor I meet – and it’s truly inspiring to see their athleticism, professionalism, strength, and support.
Samantha squares off against Bridget Shanley in a Head-to-Head Matchup in the 500m row next month. Give her a little extra motivation to beat her goal of 1:42 by donating here. All donations go directly to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in the winner's name.