Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ IF/THEN® Initiative Presents #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit: Game Changers, Showcasing Contemporary STEM Innovators in Sports
For the first time, during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Fan Festival™ at Fair Park in Dallas, Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ IF/THEN® Initiative will debut #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit: Game Changers, a monumental display of 26 life-size, 3-D printed statues celebrating leaders whose work demonstrates how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fuel the world of sports.
In collaboration with the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee, the interactive exhibit will be on public display from Thursday, June 11, through Sunday, July 19, at the Fan Festival at Dallas’ Fair Park, located at 3809 Grand Avenue. Coinciding with the full World Cup tournament, fans can enjoy free live match screenings, food, music, and entertainment. Entry to the Fan Festival and the exhibit is free.
The Game Changers include sports professionals like Julie Foudy and Lucy Li, along with Cynt Marshall, Dr. Colleen M. Hacker, and others whose work spans fields ranging from elite athletic performance and sports medicine to data analytics, stadium engineering, biomechanics, and fan technology. The installation shines a light on the STEM careers that shape and power today’s global sports industry.
“The World Cup is one of the most watched sporting events on the planet, making it a powerful moment to showcase the STEM behind the sports we love,” said Nicole Small, CEO of Lyda Hill Philanthropies, LH Capital, Inc. and Co-Founder of IF/THEN®. “This exhibit highlights the innovators transforming sports and helps the next generation see how science and technology open doors on and off the field.”
Each statue includes a QR code that unlocks videos and images that bring these women’s journeys to life. Through these stories and videos in the IF/THEN® Collection, audiences can explore how technology improves performance, how biomedical science primes athletes for the field, how data informs sports strategy on and off the field, and how engineering and innovation elevate the game for athletes and fans alike.
The lime green statues, made of a UV-cured acrylic gel, will be 3D printed in Dallas, TX. Each statue is a life-sized depiction of a Game Changer, complete with tools that reflect her work from soccer balls, to surf boards, ski helmets, microscopes, and drawing boards.
#IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit: Game Changers marks the second IF/THEN® statue exhibit, following the historic debut of #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit, which featured 120 statues of contemporary women in STEM. That first exhibit made history as the largest assembly of statues of real women ever displayed at one time, inspired by a study that found the ten largest U.S. cities displayed fewer than a half-dozen statues of real women in publicly accessible places. It was shown at ten pop-up installations, including the Central Park Zoo, Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Kendall Square, Dallas Love Field Airport, Dallas’ NorthPark Center, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, reaching more than five million visitors since 2021.
The IF/THEN® Initiative was launched in 2019 to empower current STEM innovators and inspire the next generation of pioneers by elevating women in STEM as role models. While rooted in the same mission of visibility and inspiration, #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit: Game Changers expands the initiative’s reach into sports, one of the world’s most influential cultural platforms, during the largest sporting event on the planet.
“It is an honor to display these incredible statues of influential women who have achieved remarkable accomplishments in sports during FIFA Fan Festival Dallas,” said Monica Paul, President of the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee. “Dallas and the North Texas region will be on full display during the FIFA World Cup 2026, and FIFA Fan Festival Dallas will be a perfect place for guests to enjoy the matches while also observing and learning about the great achievements of these inspirational women in sports.”
“When we invest in STEM talent, we invest in solutions for our future,” said Lyda Hill, founder of Lyda Hill Philanthropies. “We hope these statues spark inspiration, conversation, and lasting impact on the next generation long after the final match. If they can see it, then they can be it!”
The exhibit is free and open to the public throughout the World Cup Fan Festival. More information, including the complete list of Game Changers, will be published at ifthenshecan.org. The full IF/THEN® Collection may be viewed at ifthencollection.org.
Source: Press release
