Title IX Spotlight: Meena Lakdawala-Flynn
8/2/2022 12:00:00 PM | Gymnastics, My GW: Celebrating our Stories
Gymnastics alumna gives back through endowed scholarship
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, this is the latest entry in a GWsports.com series highlighting exemplary alumnae who remain connected to the Buff and Blue reflecting on the past, present and future of their programs.
Due to her continued rehab regimen following a knee injury, Meena Lakdawala-Flynn centered her internship search around the nation’s capital for the summer of 1998.
It was former GW gymnastics teammate Lori (Franklin) Chaitman who suggested the rising senior apply with a local investment firm.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Lakdawala-Flynn remembered. “I was a Pre-Med and Economics major because that’s what my brother was.
“I literally stepped onto the trading floor, and within one day, I was like, ‘This is it.’”
Looking back, Lakdawala-Flynn discovered a career path and so much more during her four seasons with GW gymnastics.
The lessons learned as a member of the Buff and Blue from 1995-1999 come in handy daily as co-head of Global Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs based in New York City, and though her days in the gym are long finished, she’s still striving for excellence following the model set forth by Head Coach Margie Foster-Cunningham.
There were unforgettable highlights, spotlighted by the first two A-10 titles in program history, and countless equally indelible moments with her teammates and coaches, on and off the competition floor, that helped make them possible.
Those transformational memories explain why Lakdawala-Flynn is giving back through an endowed scholarship benefitting the program.
“I want other women to be able to have the experience that I had.” Lakdawala-Flynn said. “Margie believed in me and made a huge impact in my life, and I’m hoping to pay that forward in every way that I can.
“If Margie did that for me, she can do that for other people, and then they can go out and make a difference also.”
Lakdawala-Flynn was merely a toddler when her passion for the sport took root. The Texas native started her first gymnastics class at 2 years old, began competing as soon as she could and eventually made a move to Oklahoma as a teen to train at an elite level.
Ultimately, Lakdawala-Flynn's commitment paid off in a college scholarship. She selected GW over a host of other high-caliber suitors, boosted by a strong closing push from her future teammates following her official visit.
“You could tell they genuinely wanted me to be on the team,” Lakdawala-Flynn said. “Just feeling that amount of support coming in meant so much. They wanted you to succeed.”
At GW, Lakdawala-Flynn found fulfillment in the balance necessary to pursue academics and athletics at the highest level and flourished with help from the leadership of veterans like Chaitman, Tracey Ackerman and Kristie Helfrich.
Along the way, she discovered a renewed joy in the sport through the team-first atmosphere of Foster-Cunningham’s program.
“Every day Margie really emphasized how we’re all in this together,” Lakdawala-Flynn said. “When you’re working that hard together, you want it more for your teammates and for your coach than you want it for yourself.”
Together, the Buff and Blue made history. In her sophomore season, Lakdawala-Flynn finished third in the all-around at the 1997 A-10 meet as part of a sweep of the podium with teammates Alexis Hrynko and Ackerman.
In 1998, the group broke through with the program’s first A-10 title after six straight runner-up finishes, and they repeated the feat the next year as part of a run of five consecutive conference crowns that continued through the 2002 season.
Unfortunately, Lakdawala-Flynn spent much of her final two seasons battling injury.
On the eve of her junior year, she hurt her knee on an awkward fall while drilling on bars. She was sidelined that year before returning to the scoring lineup as a senior captain and contributing to the repeat A-10 title victory in 1999.
Through the ups and downs, Foster-Cunningham’s steady support helped Lakdawala-Flynn stay positive and ready to handle every challenge.
“Working with Margie was like a dream,” said Lakdawala-Flynn, who was honored as an Academic All-American and also served as a member of GW’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council. “She is totally relentless in the pursuit of excellence. And it’s excellence in every aspect of your life.
“It’s not just when you’re in the gym. It’s out of the gym. It’s how you carry yourself. It’s how you’re a teammate. It’s how you treat every single person that you meet going through your day.”
Lakdawala-Flynn still champions that mindset, both at home with her husband Ron and children Jack and Anya and in the workplace.
In her role at Goldman Sachs, Lakdawala-Flynn taps into the same competitive fire that served her so well as a gymnast, and these days, she’s glad to be able to pass on all she’s learned as a mentor for the next generation.
It’s important to her to be able to create pathways for high-achieving women to excel while creating the best team possible. She said about half of the partners that work within her unit are women, which is well above the industry norm.
“You want to find things that are unique in people,” Lakdawala-Flynn said. “Think about gymnastics: You don’t want a team where everybody’s the best on vault but nobody can do beam. You’ve got to find the best in everything, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”
Amid a packed schedule as an executive and mom, Lakdawala-Flynn still finds ways to stay connected to her alma mater, whether that’s meeting up with former teammates in New York City or traveling back to Foggy Bottom for meets. She’s a new member of the GW Athletics Advisory Council, as well.
Whenever she meets members of the current gymnastics squad, Lakdawala-Flynn recognizes the same qualities that remain the bedrock of the program under Foster-Cunningham. The future is bright, and through this endowed scholarship, she’s excited to see what comes next in competition and beyond.
“The goal is to help somebody do what I did, but it’s even beyond that," Lakdawala-Flynn said. “What that person is going to be able to do is have a multiplier effect. Because by going through that program, you learn these skills and then instill them in your personal and professional life, and it multiplies in terms of the impact that you can have on people’s lives.”
Past Title IX Spotlights
Denise Dombay ('88) - Women's Swimming & Diving
Kristie Helfrich ('97) - Gymnastics
Suzy Weil ('89) - Women's Soccer