Feminist reflections on fitness, sport, and health
Author: Diane Harper
Diane Harper is a retired former public servant who lives and swims (and bikes) in Ottawa. In her hobby life, she is Siglinde Harfnerstochter, a 6th C Merovingian housewife from the city of Metz. Her primary interests are cooking, textile arts and bonecarving. Siglinde lives in the canton of Caldrithig, Barony of Skraeling Althing, Kingdom of Ealdormere.
I love winter. I love winter sports. I love the feeling of cold air on my face (and the excuse to cuddle up in something warm when I go inside).
But this winter has felt unusually long and hard. My first snow image is from November 9. I took another on March 28, following a brief squall.
Top: a snow-covered bike path from early November 2025. Bottom: a snow-covered road and trees from late March 2026.
All the jokes about second winter, false spring, and mud season aren’t landing this year because it hasn’t been warm enough to claim that anything was close to spring.
But now it’s April 1st. Surely things will get warmer? My snowdrops are starting to bloom, and I did manage a brief walk with my grandson on Sunday, so maybe. Or am I living with false hopes because it is April 1st and Mother Nature is about to play another winter trick on me?
The only way to know for sure is to get out for a walk or bike ride. Assuming it gets warm enough for the freezing rain to stop, of course.
I have written here and here about my persistent ankle injury. I finally got to see a doctor specializing in sports medicine, and she says my issue isn’t just a tight Achilles tendon. It’s that my whole leg is weak.
She sent me to a new physiotherapist for shock wave therapy to address the thickened tendon and recommended more exercises to strengthen my leg and glute muscle. The physiotherapist added more.
I am also trying a sleep sock for plantar fasciitis and have gel heel lifts for my shoes.
It has all been a reminder that as the old children’s song goes, all my body parts are connected, from the soles of my feet through my ankle, Achilles tendon, calf, hamstring and up into my glute and lower back.
The exercises are not fun, but I’m doing them faithfully because they are working. This week I managed two swim practices without taping my ankle. I even had a successful ballet class; I’m starting to get back my range of motion and I am getting strong enough to crank out a few pirouettes.
Not me doing pirouettes obviously. I would be thrilled even to do even one double pirouette.
The Winter Paralympics is a smaller event than the Olympics, but like its counterpart, it had some impressive older women participating. I’m sure I missed a few so please let me know who I should be adding.
Clockwise from top left: Ina Forrest (paralympic.ca), Collinda Joseph (Reuters/Louisa Gouliamaki), Andrea Eskau (Paralympic.org), Cécile Hernandez (France Paralympique),
Wheelchair Curler Ina Forrest, 63, is making her fifth consecutive appearance at the Paralympics. She’s the oldest member of the Canadian Paralympic team. Forrest has won a medal at every Games she’s competed in (starting in 2010) including three golds and two bronze. If you didn’t watch any of this year’s curling, go find some highlight reels. It was very exciting.
Collinda Joseph 60, is a two-time Paralympian and Team Canada’s gold-medal-winning wheelchair curling lead. Joseph played wheelchair basketball for many years but first tried curling in 2006 and fell in love with the sport .
Cécile Hernandez is a 51-year-old French para-snowboarder and four-time Paralympic medallist, with gold medals from Beijing 2022 and Milano Cortina 2026, a silver medal from Sochi 2014, and both a silver and a bronze from PyeongChang 2018.
Andrea Eskau, who will turn 55 tomorrow, has competed at every Summer and Winter Games since making her debut at Beijing 2008, except for the 2022 Winter Games. In the winter, she competes in Para biathlon and Para cross-country skiing, and in the summer, she races in Para cycling. She has won four golds and a bronze at three different summer games, four silvers and a bronze in cross-country skiing, and three golds and a bronze in biathlon. She competed in five events at Milano-Cortina and her best result was 4th in cross-country skiing.
Nobody is looking at you. Everyone is too busy figuring out their own stroke. And the water genuinely does not care. The people who have said something about your body are not in the pool doing the work. You are.
That automatically makes you the athlete in the room. Not them. Get in the water. You belong there.
These words of wisdom come from Aishwarya Jagdish, an Indian triathlete on Threads.
I came across her post shortly after a particularly busy shift at work. All three pools were packed because it’s March Break in Ontario.
I was scanning for safety but couldn’t help but notice how relaxed people were about wearing what made them happy, instead of what media tells you is “right”. I admired the huge variety of people wearing everything from tiny bikinis to swim dresses, T-shirts and leggings on all different bodies.
I love this image of four women in a variety of swimsuits, which I found in Catherine’s post from five years ago about what women over 50 should wear for swimming.
Most were there to play with their kids rather than swimming in the lap pool, but the principle holds whether you are training for a race or building sandcastles at the beach.
Forget those images of lifeguards and swimmers with teeth sparkling white in their tanned faces. Apparently, swimmer’s teeth is a thing.
What is it and how does it happen? Apparently the chlorine and other pool chemicals can change the ph in your mouth, leading the discolouration, tartar, and even softened, cracked teeth. A swimmer friend brought it to my attention, and the consensus in our little group is that it can be a real issue.
All three of us have more than normal tartar at every dental check-up, and one has issues with discolouration and cracking. I’m curious about how many members of our respective swim clubs also suffer from it.
The advice to manage it all seems to boil down to: brush your teeth, especially before exercising; drink plenty of water; avoid sugary drinks and snacks; get to the dentist regularly.
This is good advice for everyone, so I’ll tuck this information away, keep up with my dental hygiene, and swim as often as possible in lakes or rivers.
A woman in a grey bathing cap and goggles shows off her smile from a pool with dark blue water.
International Women’s Day fell on the same day as many places switched to daylight saving time this year. It was coincidence, but felt particularly cruel at a time when women’s rights are being rolled back in many places, and violent conflict is putting increasing numbers of women and girls at risk.
Anne Cherkowski, Natalie Spooner, and Vanessa Upson traded their 24s for 23s in recognition of the 23-hour International Women’s Day. And the PEHL ran a $23 fundraiser to support helping girls get into and stay in hockey.
L to R: Vanessa Upson of the Minnesota Frost, Anne Cherkowsky of the New York Sirens, and Natalie Spooner of the Toronto Sceptres, in their special International Women’s Day jerseys. Photo courtesy of @thepwhlofficial.
Others had a slightly different take. One friend, who had been at the Beijing International Women’s Conference in 1995, reflected on how hopeful things had been then, and now here we are.
Another friend, who had also been at Beijing, didn’t even mention it. She was too busy being worried about friends who might be caught up in the war in the Middle East, where at least 165 Iranian school girls were killed in an attack on their school. That story has barely caused a ripple in Canada. Compare that with the massive international outcry over the Chibok school girls in 2014.
On top of the open conflicts, we have smaller attacks on women’s rights: whether it’s making proof of identity more difficult, thus locking women out of the right to vote, women being bullied for supposedly using the “wrong” washroom, the impact of return to office policies because women who carry a large burden of child care and other invisible labour must suddenly scramble to find daycare and elder care options that allow them to manage commutes on top of their paid workday.
In the aquafit class I lifeguarded earlier today, there was a younger middle-aged woman with an older man. Sometimes they would hold hands while doing exercises. I assumed he was her father (or someone similar) and she was providing support. Turns out she is blind and he is her guide. Aquafit really is for everyone.
Image says “Aquafit for All”, with a background of people standing in a swimming pool doing Aquafit. from the instagram account of aquafitforall.org, which has the mandate of making aquatics accessible for everyone.
This is an anecdote, not a study result so take it for what it’s worth to you.
I needed some prescriptions refilled so I went to my doctor to get the annual testing done to confirm I still had the correct dose. He sent me a message saying that he recommended doubling my cholesterol medication because I am pre-diabetic (I am not) and have a history of heart disease.
I pushed back, pointing out that similar testing had been done at the heart institute three months prior, and the results were well within normal ranges for fasting blood tests. While my non-fasting results at the clinic were a little higher, they were still normal. This led to some back-and-forth about risk factors as a heart patient.
I wasn’t happy with what I was hearing so booked another appointment to discuss in person. I am “lucky” enough to have results of a recent CT scan on my femoral arteries, an angiogram, and a carotid ultrasound. All showed that my arteries are very clear. My heart disease is a mechanical thing that will be fixed with surgery. He admitted he doesn’t normally have access to that level of information so started to shift his approach.
He moved on to lifestyle and how I was possibly still high risk. Eating patterns: near-vegetarian who pays close attention to fibre intake. Exercise: at least 5 hours of moderate to intense movement each week. Weight: yup, it’s heavier than BMI recommendations, but it’s also mostly solid muscle (see previous note on exercise) and it has remained unchanged for over 30 years.
Diane in one of her favourite fat athlete photos. She is wearing a colourful bikini and blue cap. She is holding her orange float for open water swims and posing in the Ottawa River on a grey and cloudy day.
In short, I am a case study on why medical professionals should not rely on weight to judge overall health.
In the end, he agreed that my risk assessment should drop from high to low. My medication will not be changing.
Thanks fellow bloggers, especially Sam and Catherine, for writing so often about this issue and giving me the courage to speak up.
Today I turn 65. I already belong to a Facebook group called Senior Lifeguards.
I just finished my skills of the month which are basically the same as the fitness tests for my National Lifeguard certification. I redid that qualification a month ago.
It sometimes seems like a crazy thing to do this job, but I love it. Happy birthday though me!
The back of my red pinny folded to show the words lifeguard/sauveteur in whire, with my green whistle attached by a cord so it’s handy in case of emergencies.
My surgery story is much shorter than Sam’s saga of two knee surgeries that were supposed to happen through the COVID years. In fact, not much more than a year after I was diagnosed with a heart murmur, I’m expecting heart valve replacement surgery March 13.
In the past few weeks I have had an angiogram and a CT scan. I have been working on my pre-hab, which mostly means making sure I can get up and down without using my hands. I can do chairs, stairs, and – on a good day – even get down and back up off the floor.
I’m not entirely certain what will happen next. Much will depend on the kind of surgery I get. From what I have read, I could be home in a day or two with a fairly easy recovery. Or I could be looking at 5 days in hospital with at least 4-6 weeks of doing nothing strenuous.
Either way, it’s pretty clear I won’t be lifeguarding again until I get retested and demonstrate I meet the physical requirements. Even though it means I’ll have to give up work for a while, I’m excited!
