Rebecca Adlington, Olympic 400m and 800m freestyle swimming champion
The trolling, the media scrutiny I have around my body image…
I achieved two gold medals in Beijing and within days it was “you’re ugly, it’s because you look like a whale, and you’re a dolphin and you’re fat”.
I just wondered what that has got to do with winning a medal. That has nothing to do with my sport.
I will never understand why people send horrible stuff anyway, but even more when it has nothing to do with your performance.
Once you become part of sport, you realise you are all the same. It gave me so much confidence – that all of my peers at school never had. I felt 10 times more confident than them because I had something I was good at and passionate about and I think that can help with insecurities.
Lauren Steadman, Paralympic swimmer and double world champion paratriathlete
As a young girl having one arm, I was very self-conscious.
It wasn’t until I was 14 that I stopped wearing my prosthetic, because I went to a school where they had other athletes with one arm.
They turned round and said: “Why do you wear your arm? We like stumps.” I’d never been in that environment before where people just accepted the disability.
I started my swimming and stopped wearing my arm and grew confident through my achievements.
Aimee Fuller, Olympic snowboarder
I’ve always enjoyed that side of it [social media]. I’ve wanted to share my story. I’ve wanted to inspire other females and I’ve always really been myself. That’s my motto.
I feel like I’ve been very lucky to build a loyal following, but I have seen some horrific messages – mainly direct messages,
Sometimes you get people that don’t have the confidence to write on the wall. More ‘pervy’ things, to be honest, from males.
There are definitely some nasty people out there and I’m just thankful to everyone who has supported me on my journey.
