This week’s triathlon and endurance sports news gets real about interviewing female athletes, a new summit hosted by Feisty Media, how Challenge Wanaka is supporting inclusion in the sport of triathlon and … a solution to treadmill boredom.
XC Skier Jessie Diggins Gets Real About Media Questions for Female Athletes
Jessie Diggins, cross country skier for the US Ski Team, recently won the 10k skate race in Falun as part of the FIS World Cup.
Celebrating her win, she headed off to the media zone and was keen to share her experience on questions posed and how far the industry still has to go in body image education.
Jessie shares, “One of the reporters asked me about my race told me that [fellow athlete] Johaug was much better than I was in the uphills, but I was faster in the downhills. Why did I think this happened? Before I could open my mouth to answer him, he steamrolled over me, hypothesizing on live TV that it was because I was so much bigger than Therese and weighed more, and that’s why I went faster. I blinked at him. I asked him to repeat the question, sure that I hadn’t understood him correctly (I had).
On what I sincerely hope was still live TV for the sake of women everywhere, I told him that he needed to learn how to talk to women. Secondly, he may never comment on a skier’s body. That is not ok. I pointed at my headgear, the Emily Program, and asked him to take a second and think about why I race with that specific logo on my head. I ultimately won that race because of my heart, not my body composition, and to suggest otherwise is harmful to every young athlete out there watching it.”
“If even one girl reads this and realizes that:
- People who make comments about her body composition are trying to shift focus away from her actual skills.
- She has the power to stop someone when they are being rude and hurtful.
- That she doesn’t have to stand there and take that kind of shit from anyone, ever, then it will have been worth it. Same goes for the young men out there.
Take care of the body you were genetically born with. Keep it healthy, keep your brain happy, and keep a strong team around you. And that will be enough to reach your potential in sport. Just being YOU will be enough.”
Fesity Women Get Their Own Dedicated Endurance Conference
A new experience for womxn endurance athletes will hit the play button this March. Live Feisty Media announced they will be hosting the Feisty Womxn’s Performance Summit March 26 – March 28, 2021. The event will be a full (virtual) weekend of
- Real information and vetted insights for womxn athletes
- Call-to-arms for womxn in endurance sports
- Featured presenters will be scientists, companies, coaches, platforms, and events that champion womxn in endurance sports.
As to the reasoning why this summit is both needed and important, Dr Sarah Gross, co-founder of Live Feisty Media and two-time Ironman champion notes. “it’s a wild west at the moment. Everyone is jumping on the “woman thing” bandwagon and it can be unclear who really knows their stuff, and who is just taking advantage of a trend; who simply sees new potential for customers, and who just “shrinks it and pinks it” when it comes to their product lines.”
Speakers will include:
- Dr. Stacy Sims, exercise physiologist and female athlete performance specialist. Co-author of the groundbreaking book ROAR: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life
- Mirna Valerio, inspirational speaker, cross-country coach, ultrarunner, and author of the memoir, ‘A Beautiful Work in Progress’.
- Erin Carson, co-owner of RallySport, a Boulder, Colorado training facility and head coach for ECFIT, strength training programs for endurance athletes.
- Dr. Sara Gross, two-time Ironman champion, co-founder of Live Feisty Media, and host of the If We Were Riding podcast
- Selene Yeager, co-author of ROAR with Dr. Stacy Sims and host of the groundbreaking Hit Play Not Pause podcast focusing on menopausal athletes
“Women get inaccurate, trickle-down, BS science and coaching information because traditionally male researchers have deemed us “messy” as study subjects – we have periods, we get pregnant, our hormones make us unreliable and unpredictable,” comments Selene Yeager, co-author of the bestselling book ROAR and host of the Hit Play Not Pause podcast from Live Feisty Media.
The result? Womxn have largely been left on their own to figure it out, struggling to find training and nutrition strategies—strategies authored mainly for men–that might or might not work for their needs and performance.
Challenge Wanaka Opens its Arms to Inclusion
In the spirit of opening up the sport of triathlon to be more inclusive, we were thrilled to read a post by Kristyn Walker. She shared some news about Challenge Wanaka, part of the global Challenge triathlon series.
Each year Challenge Wanaka holds an adaptive race for intellectually and physically disabled athletes. This event is part of their celebration of triathlon in the days leading up to the race.
This is an incredible event and Kirstyn Walker’s daughter Charlotte competed as a nine year old with cerebral palsy. Each athlete is allowed to choose their distance. Charlotte chose to do the shortest swim across the lakefront in the shallows, two 2k laps on the bike and about a one kilometer run.
The smile on Charlotte’s face says it all about the day. It reminds us of the transformative power of sport, the joy it can bring and how triathlon can seamlessly be more inclusive and open to all.
Charlotte’s mum shared, “Everyone encouraged her to swim and it was just amazing. Who wants to guess what her favourite part is? Check out that aero position! Well done little Charlotte.”
Whenever we all can get back to racing, it serves us well to remember Charlotte’s smile and determination. We can bring that spirit to every start line for ourselves. It’s a reminder to us to encourage, support and be open to all on their triathlon journey.
Dreadmill No More!
Winter training, shorter daylight as well as work/life challenges means the treadmill is part of the training load for many.
In partnership with USA Triathlon coach Brad Haags, POPPYsports brings you ten effective treadmill workouts. Want to be more focused on the ‘moving sidewalk’? Download the ebook to make the next ten workouts a little more fun.
For the price of a pretentious cappuccino (which you’re not buying now anyway if you’re working from home and not passing the coffee shop) you can have ten mini challenges delivered straight your inbox.
Get your treadmill humming with the following challenges:
- The Hurricane
- Tempo Hills
- 12 x 1 Minute Hills
- 4 x 5 Minute Tempo
- Fartlek Intervals
- Run Speed
- Treadmill 2 x 2 x 2
- 3 Minutes Best Effort
- Building Tempo
- 3 x 5k Progression
