About
Athlete. Author. Founder.
Believer, runner, founder, and your NIL big sister.
Introduction
A career built at the intersection of sport, story, and ownership.
Emily Cole is a professional distance runner with Union Athletics Club, a Duke University alumna, best-selling author, entrepreneur, and investor building at the intersection of women's sports, financial literacy, and health tech.
She graduated from Duke with a BS in Computer Science, Summa Cum Laude and a 4.0 GPA. On the track, she is an ACC champion and All-American. Off the track, she was the first NCAA student-athlete to publish a book using NIL, and one of the Founding Five athletes now building NIL TV.
My Story
What I learned the hard way.
"I spent the most important race day of my life in a coma because I wasn't eating or drinking enough salt."
At seventeen, the summer before my senior year, I changed everything about how I ate and trained to be better and faster. It worked. I qualified for state for the first time.
But I never ran that race. I spent the weekend in a self-induced coma from hyponatremia, dangerously low sodium in my blood.
I didn't know any better. Now I do, and I want to keep other young athletes from making the same mistakes.
By the numbers
Credentials, for the record.
Mission
What I'm building toward.
Women's sports
Building the infrastructure, coverage, and revenue models that female athletes deserve.
Financial literacy
Teaching athletes to own their brands, their money, and their futures from day one.
Health
Sustainable performance rooted in real fueling, real recovery, and hard truths.
Athlete ownership
Athletes should own their stories, their audiences, and the value they create.
Timeline
A few milestones.
- 2019Klein High School
State qualifier and future Blue Devil.
- 2019–2024Duke University
BS Computer Science, Summa Cum Laude, 4.0. Track and cross country.
- 2022The Players' Plate
First NCAA student-athlete to publish a book using NIL.
- 2023Therabody
Signed as the first female NIL athlete.
- 2024NIL TV
Co-founder and CMO, one of the Founding Five.
- 2024Union Athletics Club
Turned professional as a distance runner.