Tag: inspiration

celebration · femalestrength

Casually Strong

Diane Harper1 Comment

One of my reflections from the blogger barbecue at Sam’s was just how strong and fit everyone is. Shocker! It’s a fitness blog after all.

Cate talked about tossing off 75 km rides on a poorly fitted bike with seized pedals in France. Others exchanging plans for upcoming charitable rides. There were mentions of camping adventures and favourite hikes.

Talk of a visit to Newfoundland turned to reminiscences about Sam and Sarah’s ride from Deer Lake to St Anthony’s some years ago, and whether that would be a fun group thing. I have been a passenger driving on that route several times. I immediately offered to drive the support van because I would never survive those hills.

What struck me was just how strong and fit (and smart and interesting) every single woman in the group was. Frankly, I felt intimidated and had to remind myself that I’m actually a pretty good swimmer and a decent cook.

I’m a little older, and can’t do those exact things but diversity is good and I have different interests and fitness goals and that’s okay. One of the things I have learned from hanging around (virtually until now) with the bloggers is that self-talk is a very useful tool, and for a while on Saturday I had to put that lesson to good use.

Will I continue to be impressed all they do? Heck ya! Will I feel more than the slightest twinge of wanting to be able to do what they do? Probably not because I will remind myself that comparison is the thief of joy.

I will just keep doing my little goofy activities that keep my brain engaged and my body moving, and sometimes help make swimming or cycling safer for other people. They make me happy and sometimes they entertain other people, and I love that for me.

Me with a post-walk ice cream. Chasing after the ice cream truck by following the sound of its music is one of my favourite summertime fitness activities. I have occasionally walked for more than an hour to track it down, and then walked home.
athletes · swimming

Swimmer Dreams

Diane Harper1 Comment

I think about lots of things when I’m swimming. I think especially about comments on or by great swimmers and how I can incorporate that into my own swims.

Me in the centre, sharing a moment with swimming greats Summer McIntosh and Katie Ledecky – totally not a faked image at all 😁. Original photo is from Swimmingworldmagazine.com, from February 25, 2025.

It started a few years ago when someone told me to watch a video of Katie Ledecky breathing in freestyle. She barely got her mouth out of the water.

The last few weeks have been great for ideas from the experts.

First it was former Olympian Brent Hayden, who graciously provided a detailed answer on body rotation when I asked him a question about one of his posts that I didn’t understand. Seriously cool! And helpful advice that I am incorporating into both my distance swims and sprint practices.

Then it was a commentator at the Worlds in Singapore pointing out Summer McIntosh’s heels coming slightly out of the water when she kicked, showing her excellent horizontal position in the water. My swim coach has been trying to get me to do that for ages. I teach kids to do it in swim classes. But do I do it myself? Let’s just say I have been trying, and I’m more consistent when I entertain myself by pretending I’m swimming like Summer.

Early on Saturday morning it was Katie Ledecky after her amazing 800M swim in 8:05 (I’m happy when I do 400 in under 10 minutes). In a post-swim interview, she said she has really been working on her kick and it is paying off. Me too Katie, me too. Also me – time to review those YouTube videos on how to achieve an efficient two-beat kick like hers.

After watching the swimming on Saturday, I went to the lake for a little swim with friends. They are both faster than me so I was pleased that I was able to stay close. I worked hard, but at the end I ran out of steam and finished third. Did I laughingly compare myself to Summer McIntosh as I got out of the water? Yes, yes I did.

The lake where I dream of swimming like an Olympian.
athletes

What Kind of Headline is This? Ultramarathoner Wins Race “While Stopping to Breastfeed Along the Way”

Diane Harper3 Comments

The title of this article about Canadian ultrarunner Stephanie Case winning a the 100 mile race Ultra-trail in Snowdonia, Wales, on May 17, six months after giving birth, really gets my goat.

The article itself is just fine. It talks about how 42 year-old Case took three years off from running and this was her first big race since then. It’s honest about some of the challenges she faced both with her body and with managing the logistics of feeding her baby. Case talks about the importance of supporting new moms, and allowing them the space to pursue things they love, while also recognizing that stories like hers risk setting impossible standards for women.

Case did a truly remarkable thing. She ran 100 km in a little over 16 hours, starting a half hour behind the elite runners in the first wave. She did it a mere six months after pregnancy and birth, something that can be really hard on a woman’s body.

Ultramarathoner Stephanie Case takes a selfie while on the trail in northern Wales.

But would there have been the same attention to her story if she had been using formula, as many women do for all kinds of reasons? Somehow I doubt it. I still see way too much “breast is best” social media shaming of women can’t or chose not to breastfeed. Full disclosure: I am very much in the “breast is great if it works for you and your baby, but fed is best” camp. Formula was invented for a reason, and millions of children are alive because they had that option (especially in countries with access to clean water and good quality formula).

Still, if a stupid headline is what it takes to highlight the accomplishments of an amazing woman doing a really hard thing, I’ll swallow my grumpiness and celebrate her.

celebration · soccer

Happy Northern Super League Launch Day!

Diane Harper

Canada’s new pro women’s soccer league, makes its debut tonight with Calgary Wild FC taking on Vancouver Rise FC.

This six team league is the brainchild of former professional and Olympic soccer player Diana Matheson. Canadian soccer superstar Christine Sinclair is also a supporter.

Halifax Tides FC, Montreal Roses FC, Ottawa Rapid FC, and AFC Toronto at the other four teams. After two seasons, the plan is expand further across Canada.

I hope the new league is met with the same level of joyous fan support as the PWHL. Women’s sports are having a moment and there are millions of soccer-playing Canadian girls who now have a chance to see their hero’s play regularly, not just at the World Cup and Olympics.

LET’ GO!!!

Northern Super League players unveil their team jerseys (photo courtesy of NSL)
celebration · feminism · fitness

Honouring Pioneers of Women’s Sport – Abby Hoffman

Diane Harper

The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) has been doing an amazing job of fan engagement but on of the things I have enjoyed most is how they make time at every game (at least in Ottawa) to highlight the contributions of women who have helped make space for women and girls to play sports.

At a recent game, it was Abby Hoffmann. Abby started playing hockey on a boy’s team in the 1950s in Toronto. She was kicked off the team when I was discovered she was a girl; her case went all the way to the Ontario Supreme Court and got international media coverage. Sadly, she lost.

Image of Abby Hoffman as a young hockey player, from Library and Archives Canada.

That didn’t stop her though. She took up competitive swimming and then became a world-class middle distance runner. I remember watching her at her fourth Olympics (Montreal, 1976), where she was the flag-bearer.

After her athletic career ended, she turned to public service, becoming the first woman Director General of Sport Canada, the first Canadian woman elected as an executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee, and a supporter of the Canadian women’s national hockey championship, which ran from 1982 to 2007. Its prize was Abbey Hoffman Cup, now house in the Hockey Hall of Fame. She is a member of both the Order of Canada and has been inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Abby Hoffman running in 1972. Photo by Boris Spremo for the Toronto Star.

It was a thrill to see Abby in person at a game, after following her career for so many years.

fashion

Beach Wear I “Need” to Make

Diane Harper

I say “Need” advisedly, because I don’t really need more things to wear to the beach. I have multiple robes, onesies and wrap skirts. But I don’t own beach pyjamas, and now that I know they exist, I want some.

Sam has written about swim dresses before, but those are quite different from the elegant, yet voluminous and comfortable pyjamas of the 1920s and 1930s.

On the left, 1930s silk beach pyjamas on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum. On the right, women wear beach pyjamas in 1934 (Hulton Archive/Getty)

Beach pyjamas were shocking when they first appeared, because they crossed gender lines. Until the 1920s, only men wore the lightweight pants with drawstring waistbands that had been adopted by British colonials from Indian Muslims in the 1800s. But “modern girls” who used them could roam unhindered around beachside towns.

I have some fabric in my stash that would be perfect, for pyjamas. And I think I have something that will make a suitable accompanying top, inspired by these gorgeous looks.

Left: a woman wearing pyjamas and a wide-sleeved cropped jacket stands in front of a beach umbrella (Séeburger Brothers). Right: young Moga (Modern Girls) walk down a Gonzales street in 1928 dressed in “beach pyjama style”(Kagayama Kyoto).

I rather like the idea of tackling one of my 25 in 2025 projects (reduce the fabric stash) by sewing something feminist, even if it doesn’t turn out as cute as one of these:

A postcard from the 1920s or 1930s, found on lamodepyjama.blogspot.com
swimming

Amy Appelhans Gubser in Her Own Words

Diane Harper2 Comments

Earlier this year, Amy Appelhans Gubser achieved what many considered impossible: swimming nearly 30 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands—a feat that no man or woman had ever completed before.

Amy faced unimaginable challenges: freezing 43-degree water, shark-infested depths, and hours upon hours of relentless swimming without a wetsuit. 

We have written about her here and here. At the time, Sam was outraged by the lazy journalism that focused on her weight and family status, and didn’t even mention her name. I was interested to see how experienced swimmers reported on her feat, and and noted her many swimming achievements before this swim.

Now you can listen to Amy herself, in this podcast where she is interviewed about her swim.

Photo of Amy Appelhans Gubser in the water, wearing a swim cap with goggles and a huge smile.

I still think Amy is pretty darned cool. And I appreciate that the written intro to the podcast made no reference to her weight or her status as a grandmother. It even mentions her name!

femalestrength · fitness

The Power of Connection

Diane Harper1 Comment

I went out for dinner recently with two women who are dear to my heart but who didn’t know each other except as very casual acquaintances. I was privileged to watch it become a joyful celebration of girl power as the two spent a couple of hours talking about the martial art one loved and the other had loved but where she now was struggling to decide whether she ever wanted to take it up again.

I don’t do this sport. I have never even really wanted to do this sport. But I know just enough about it to follow along as they talked about all the issues that make the sport challenging for women:

Equipment that is hard to fit because of breasts and the difficulties of getting it adjusted because the people who make it are mostly men who don’t design for women’s bodies (though that is changing).

Equipment requirements put in place by men that make no sense for women (men absolutely need a cup for this sport, but a Jill is a hindrance and unnecessary).

The need many women have to be much more technical because they are fighting taller men with longer reach.

The different way many women process learning; they want more drills rather than just rushing in to bash their opponents and hope to learn something on the fly.

Representation matters! There were anecdotes about fan-girling over other women who do this sport, and the impact their presence on the field has made to women interested in giving it a try.

The feelings of inadequacy and discomfort with asking for help because you fear you are being a burden to others at practice.

The struggles to find time to practice because family responsibilities.

All the body issues: larger; shape has changed; returning after childbirth and years of raising that child; aging; injury.

It was joyful to listen to them talking through possible solutions. It was even more joyful to see them connect as they shared what aspects/positions/weapons forms they loved and why.

What was really striking was the universality of the issues. As these two near-strangers geeked out for hours, I could still join in with observations from the sports I do and the gender-based analysis work I used to do.

Diane, Mel and Bess, top. Below: Bess on the left and Mel on the right, doing the thing they both love.
fitness · Olympics

1 in 100 million – The Olympic Refugee Team

Diane Harper1 Comment

I’m a sucker for the underdog stories and sports at the Olympics. There are some great ones coming out of Paris, but my favourite has to be the Olympic Refugee Team. I wrote about them before, when I saw the movie The Swimmers, which was based on the true story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini, Syrian swimmers who became refugees in Germany; Yusra eventually swam for the first Refugee Team at Rio in 2016.

Aside from giving athletes an opportunity to compete when they can’t compete for their home country, it’s also a way to highlight the situation of over 100 million people currently displaced outside their countries. This is reflected in the refugee team pin:

Olympic Refugee team pin, superimposed on a photos of the Paris skyline

Among the 37 athletes competing this year, two women are especially worthy of notice.

Cameroonian boxer Cindy Ngamba is guaranteed the team’s first-ever medal as she has advanced to the semi-finals. Two bronze medals are awarded in boxing, so even if she loses her next fight on August 8, she is guaranteed a medal. If she wins, she will fight for the gold. Ngamba has lived in the UK since she was 11; as a gay woman, she would be at risk of imprisonment if she returned to Cameroon.

Nigara Shaheen is a judoka originally from Afghanistan, now living in Toronto. Her family fled Afghanistan for Pakistan when she was an infant, and it was there that she first started learning judo. In 2014, she returned to Afghanistan to study at university, but left again in 2018 due to threats and bullying because she was an athlete. Eventually she made her way to Canada where she is now a permanent resident. Although she did not advance in the individual women’s or the mixed team events, I think it’s amazing that she managed to compete at all.

What about you? Do you have any favourite underdogs, whether they be individuals, national teams or sports?

fitness · movies · swimming

Young Woman and the Sea

Diane Harper

Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, is the subject of a new movie on Disney, called A Young Woman and the Sea.

Gertrude Ederle is has been a hero since I first heard of her. She was just 20 when she made the crossing, smashing the men’s record in the process and setting a time that lasted until 1950. She was also a medal-winning Olympian and holder of multiple world records.

Gertrude Ederle at the end of her swim from France to England in 1926. Photo from the Facebook page A Mighty Girl.

What struck me most about the movie was the other women who were forces in her life: her mother, who insisted that she and her sister learn to swim and worked to pay for their membership in a women’s swim club, her female coach at the club, and the support of her sister throughout. They, along with Ederle herself, fought hard against the sexism of the time.

The movie takes a couple of liberties for dramatic effect, but is reportedly quite true to the biography of the same name. Her coach probably did sabotage her first attempt (though not by making her sick by adding sleeping pills to her tea), and her second attempt took place almost a year after the first, not mere days later.

If you want a feel-good movie to inspire you to swim, I highly recommend this one.