So even though it was only a small part of the whole article, my interview on Pinkbike created a big debated about prize money and general equality. You can go and read the opinions if you like; I don’t want to go through it here. BUT my Nan sent me a link to this speech a while ago and I related to a lot of it, especially when sports were mentioned... “I was confused at 15 when girl friends started dropping out of sports teams because they didn’t want to appear muscley.” I know this is true and I find it really sad, given the amazing opportunities and fun I’ve had thanks to sports. I did get grief at secondary school for being skinny and not having the body shape of a ‘normal’ girl. I’m so glad I had enough self-confidence to ignore the comments and get on with what I wanted to be doing. Sport hasn’t always been the ‘normal’ girl thing to do, and is often left to the boys in the playground, I think this is the reason girls have some catching up to do as far as participation is concerned. Thanks to all the positive role models there have already been, and the internet, women are creating a stronger presence in sport all the time. I guess my point is girls do have a bit of catching up to do, and we need support. I have been very lucky to have such a supportive team behind me and it has made such a huge difference to my racing. Now we have so many more accessible facilities (in the UK) where the public can go and ride hopefully many more girls will take up mountain biking, and I want to be involved with that. Oh, and I’m perfectly happy with my body!
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:01:16 +0000