Women and Sport

Happy International Women’s Day!

Today, the 8th of March, is International Women’s Day. It is a great moment to celebrate women’s achievements and also reflect on the fact there is more to achieve when it comes to equality. With many girls dropping out of sports during their teenage years, there is still a lot to be done to keep women active. This email will focus on celebrating the sports of women, including both my clients achievements and my achievements, and share some facts about how elite sport has changed for the better for women. As part of being a woman also means having to deal with the menstrual cycle when training for sport, I will include some information about that.

In my own business I’d like to celebrate all the women who train regularly with me. Here is a selection of those who have completed some big achievements in their sport or have gotten back to sport over the last year.

Triathletes: This year, we had success with Johanna, who competed in the Ironman 70.3 age group world championships in New Zealand. Mariuxa completed another Ironman 70.3 in the summer and Kym did her first Olympic distance triathlon.

Running: Abigail trained for a marathon that ended up being unseasonably hot, but she still made it!

Skiing: It is currently ski season and we got Frederique, Elspeth and Kym ready for their ski holidays.

Surgery: I have also had a few clients who had surgery recently, and I have helped them to continue training during recovery while they had their rehab from their respective physiotherapists.

Tango: I have continued to help Noelle with her strength and stability for her Tango.

Historical highlights of women in sport

Photo originally published in the Boston Herald and distributed by the Associated Press on April 20, 1967. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 

1. The Paris Olympics 2024 was the first Olympics where an equal number of men and women participated.
2. In 1967, Kathrine Switzer ran the Boston Marathon as an officially registered competitor. At the time, only men were allowed to compete, but her registration flew under the radar after signing her name as she usually did: K.V. Switzer. Despite a race official trying to remove her from the course (as shown in the pictures above), she finished the marathon. It wasn’t until 1972 that the Boston Marathon officially permitted women to compete, becoming the first major marathon to do so. The first marathon solely for women was held in Germany in 1973.
3. Alice Coachman became the first Black woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics when she he won the high jump at the 1948 London Games (the first woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics was in 1900). When she returned to the U.S., Coachman was celebrated, but this was during segregation. At a tribute in her honor in her hometown of Albany, Georgia, whites and African Americans sat separately, and the mayor of Albany, who was white, refused to shake her hand.

Working with your menstrual cycle

When it comes to sport, women are different from men in that we have to work with our menstrual cycles. Our menstrual cycles change how we feel at different parts of the month. We can use what we know about our body to sometimes train harder and sometimes train less. I wrote an article about it here.

I also have some information for you if you are in or heading towards peri/menopause.

Celebrating my own sport

This last year wasn’t my best with the Achilles injury, but I still loved the races I participated in. I shared about the Zell am See triathlon that I did with friends here. But I also loved trying out the hybrid sports of Hyrox and 6Blox. Both were with a doubles partner, which made for a nice change from the solo triathlon.

Let’s continue to celebrate women both in sports and in other spheres of life. Not just today but all through the year.