I’ve always been an athlete. As a kid, I played volleyball and soccer, and was a cheerleader, dancer and even a competitive figure skater. As an adult, I’ve won three ballroom dancing national championships, finished two marathons and even set the Guinness World Records mark for heaviest female to complete a marathon. Now, I’m training for an Ironman triathlon, which is a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run — all in a row; all under 17 hours.
I’ve also always been fat. Yes, despite myths, stereotypes and legitimized fears of being fat-shamed, I’ve always wanted to be involved in fitness, and have found ways to make it happen. Fortunately, I’m not alone. Here, five other plus-sized female athletes share their stories to prove that there’s plenty of room for all bodies in fitness.
Roz “The Diva” Mays: Pole Dancer
Roz Mays, who goes by “The Diva” in pole dancing circles, was raised to appreciate her thick thighs by a father who called them “tree trunks” to celebrate their strength. She used those tree trunks to her advantage in youth sports including softball, fencing and soccer. But in high school, she got tripped up by the myth that an athletic body also has to be a fast body, so she and fitness broke up.
But after college, they got back together. This time, her partner was pole dancing — a sport that celebrates her plus-sized body. “Pole dancing has been so helpful in starting to repair my relationship with myself because I hang out with a bunch of women of different shapes and sizes, and we ogle each other,” Mays says. “We say things like, ‘Damn! What did you dead lift today? That’s so hot.'”
Today at age 33, Mays helps other plus-sized people find their body love through fitness and pole dancing by teaching “obnoxiously loud” classes in New York City. She’s performed around the country, and has appeared on “Law and Order: SVU,” “The Big C” and “That’s My Boy” as a professional stunt worker. She also founded Dangerous Curves — a pole dancing competition specifically for plus-sized pole dancers.
[See: 7 Ways to Boost Poolside Confidence Without Changing Your Body.]
That’s not to say Mays hasn’t faced sizeism and racism. People from internet trolls to Howard Stern — who told her that she was “too fat” to be a pole dancer, despite the fact that she had received riotous applause after her “America’s Got Talent” audition — have attacked her. But Mays powers through because those things that fat-shamers say they can’t stand about her are the exact reasons she has sold-out classes week after week. “People tell me specifically that because of my size, they’re going to try [exercising],” she says. “Before, they wouldn’t try because they didn’t have an example.” Follow her at RozTheDiva.com.
Deb Malkin: Mount Kilimanjaro Climber
Deb Malkin, 48, was looking for an epic way to celebrate turning 50 when a group climb up Mount Kilimanjaro showed up on her “Fat Girls Traveling” Facebook group. “The chance to go a on a great adventure with other fat women was something I couldn’t pass up,” says Malkin, a body positive body worker in Oakland, California.
Malkin wasn’t always so gung-ho about fitness for adventure’s sake. As a bigger kid, much of her relationship to her body was focused on making it smaller, not on finding movement activities she would enjoy. “Thirty years later, this is still a source of tenderness,” she admits. But after studying body movement and getting involved in body positive advocacy, Malkin now understands more about how bodies can adapt in strength and flexibility — even as we age, regardless of size. Cue her Mount Kilimanjaro adventure.
“With a group of 20 women who share similar bodies and stories, I can feel confident that we will meet this challenge together,” she says. Malkin and the crew will make their climb in March 2019. You can follow their adventure on Instagram at @curvykilicrew.
Yishay Garbasz: Trans Triathlete
Growing up transgender, fat and poor in Germany, Yishay Garbasz faced more than her share of negative stereotypes, bigotry and monetary challenges. In early 2014, she was even poisoned with epoxy resin at an art residency program in South Korea. The poisoning left her with occupational asthma and chronic lung problems. She spent eight months in bed, and was unable to walk 500 meters.
[See: 13 Ways Social Determinants Affect Health.]
But she decided then to pair her recovery with activism, and set her sights on what seemed like the most impossible task, in part because the field is populated with the fewest people like her: She decided to become a triathlete. “I certainly couldn’t afford a personal trainer to coach me for a triathlon, but I had the resources of the internet and I began a rigorous program of my own design,” Garbasz remembers. “I borrowed a mountain bike from a friend. My friend is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and I’m about 6 feet tall, so needless to say, the bike was not a great fit.”
Still, she succeeded. Now at age 47, she lives in Berlin and is Germany’s first trans woman triathlete, as well as an activist and advocate for slower athletes — aka “back of the packers.” She’s completed sprint- and Olympic-distance triathlons, and is currently training for her first half-Ironman.
When it comes to advice for other higher-weight athletes, she says the key is to embrace everything about yourself. “I’m fat, I’m slow, I’m trans, I’m poor — and watch me roar,” she says. Follow Garbasz’s journey at GoFundMe.com/yishay.
Theresa Bakker: Fat Fitness Trainer
Bakker was put on her first diet at age 9, and yo-yo dieted her way into young adulthood. She even entered the fitness industry because she hoped that becoming a trainer would be the key to permanent thinness. Instead, she met the mentor who introduced her to powerlifting, and soon found herself on a path to loving her body and appreciating what it can do at any size.
Now, at age 55 in Portland, Maine, when Bakker works with clients who are new to body positivity, she loves helping them transition from viewing exercise as a punishment to helping them set and reach “achievable, functional goals that have nothing to do with body size,” she says. One client, for example, was a teenage boy dealing with bullying at school — and especially in gym class. She used strength training to help him come out of his shell and improve his self-confidence and his relationship with his body.
“There is room for fat folks in each and every area of fitness,” she says. To find a body-positive trainer in your area, search the Health at Every Size registry for a fitness professional who has signed the HAES Pledge.
Dianne Bondy: Yogi
Dianne Bondy grew up the daughter of a free-spirited yogi mom, practicing wherever, whenever. So when she first walked into a traditional studio as an adult, she had a rude awakening. “Because of size and skin tone, I felt excluded — not welcomed,” she says. Unable to find a diverse and inclusive studio, she started one.
Now at age 48, Bondy is a celebrated yoga teacher in Tecumseh, Ontario, with over 1,000 hours of training that she uses to help students discover self-expression, freedom and radical self-love through their practice of yoga. She also inspires people who can’t come to her classes; for example, she starred in a video she called “Who Says Plus Size Women Can’t” that garnered over 1 million hits on YouTube.
[See: 9 Misconceptions About Yoga.]
Bondy comes to her personal practice, and her teaching, from a place of inclusion and social justice, using her platform to inspire thousands of followers of all fitness levels, shapes, sizes and ethnicities. “[Yoga poses] look and feel different in all bodies,” she says. “Learning about our bodies and what they can do helps us to come to our mats with strength and confidence.” Find out more about Dianne at DianneBondyYoga.com.
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These Higher-Weight Female Athletes Are Shattering Myths About Fitness originally appeared on usnews.com
