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    How Triathlete Vicky van der Merwe Balances Training With Motherhood

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    Well-known Stellenbosch-based triathlete Vicky van der Merwe is on the comeback after a break after her son was born. She will be competing at the Woolworths X TRI off-road triathlon in Elgin on Saturday 4 December.
    Vicky van der Merwe: having it all as an elite triathlete and a mom
    Top triathlete Vicky van der Merwe is also a business owner at Stellenbosch Triathlon Squad (STS), where she is a coach and race organiser, and in the last two years she has added wife and mother to her roles. The 32-year-old athlete is a familiar face on podiums across the country and internationally, and she is now focused on her return to competitive racing in short-course triathlon since the birth of her son Adriaan in February 2021.
    She says being both a mom and an elite athlete has given her a new perspective: “The amazing thing is you have to make every session count as every opportunity to train is time away from the family. You have to be so intentional with your time. I love it. I always knew that I would return to racing, but I did not have a clear plan. It was my first pregnancy and I had planned a natural birth, and then I had to have an emergency c-section at 37 weeks – you really can’t plan these things!”
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    “I threw myself in the deep end with training four or five weeks after Adriaan’s birth, and started slowly building up.”
    Three months later she went to Africa Champs, claiming fifth place despite not having a great race. She feels optimistic about re-establishing her place as one of the top female South African triathletes. Since returning to competition with the 2021 Africa Champs, she has won the Walker Bay Xtreme Big 6, the Torpedo SwimRun (she holds the record), the Caveman Triathlon, the African X Trail Run, and recently the 2022 Cape Town Triathlon.
    Vicky at the CT Triathlon 2022
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    Vicky says she loves racing and has a few more years of competitive racing ahead. Her immediate focus is on the Woolworths X TRI the off-road triathlon on 4 December at Paul Cluver Family Wines Wines in Elgin. This race is a bit more about the fun, but a challenging event nonetheless if you are taking on the full triathlon.
    “I find mixing it up a bit with off-road triathlon is so good for me as an athlete, and the WW X TRI is perfect for triathletes like myself looking to cross-train and test themselves in different disciplines. I will for sure be looking to stand on the top step of the podium, but this event really hits the mark for family fun as well, with a Lite event plus fun trail runs and a shorter walk.”
    When asked if her goal is to qualify for the Paris Olympics, she is hesitant to confirm: “You obviously have to be in the top two or three in the country and we have some very strong women athletes. Because I’ve been out of it for so long, I have set myself small goals, with SA Champs being my next big one in March next year.”
    With some confusion for the layperson about what constitutes a triathlon, Vicky sums it up, “Triathlon is any race involving a swim, a cycle and a run. There is off-road triathlon where the Xterra World Championships is the highest honours, then Ironman, full and half, that are more focused on endurance, and the World Championship held in Kona in Hawaii is the big goal. Then there is the Olympic Triathlon which is my discipline, and I prefer the sprint or short-course which is a 750m swim, 20 km cycle and 5km run. Standard Olympic Triathlon distances are 1.5 km swim, a 40 km bicycle ride and a 10 km run.”
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    As someone who was National and African Junior Triathlon champ when in high school, Vicky has triathlon in her veins, and beneath the fun and bubbly personality is a fierce competitor who juggles being a wife and mom, a businessperson, a coach and an athlete.
    Get to Paul Cluver Family Wines in Elgin on 4 December for the WW X TRI to catch Vicky in action and support the work of the Woolworths Trust, the beneficiary of all proceeds from the event.  For more information and to enter visit www.wwxtri.co.za More

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      How The Women’s Proteas Are Prepping For The T20 World Cup

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      Finally! The Women’s T20 World Cup is almost upon us. After a much-anticipated wait, the women’s Proteas will be competing on home turf against the best in the world. The opening match will take place on February 10th 2023 (SA takes on Sri Lanka for the first game) and tickets will be going for as low as R60.
      “Since I made my debut to now, I think the game has become a lot more competitive within the women’s space,” says Protea right-hander Faye Tunnicliffe. “It’s a great place to be to wear the green and gold, especially now we’re gonna have women wearing it in front of the home crowds.”
      READ MORE: It’s Time To Stop Watching The Kids Play Cricket And Get In The Game
      Women’s Proteas: prepping for the game
      The team have a rigorous training programme leading up to the event, with tons of running (sprints and distance runs) involved. There’s running four times a week, with strength training four times a week. There’s stability work involved, too, especially for batters and bowlers, says Faye. “You have to have that core strength and stability in order to perform at your best and avoid injury,” she says. “Also, I think fielding is becoming a lot more demanding within the women’s game. That is becoming a skill within itself. So that you have to be conditioned in order to like take a knock and to dive around and stuff and to recover quickly.”
      For Suné Luus, fitness is a continual journey. “I’ve been on a health journey for a very long time, just trying to be the healthiest I can be,” she says. “So I’m trying to eat very well. I’m trying to condition my body to, you know, sustain me for four weeks of training.” When she’s not on the field, Suné likes to let loose on the bicycle. “I just like take my cycle and I just go wherever… and I live in a beautiful place,” she says.
      READ MORE: Sport Really Can Empower Women — Just Look At Banyana Banyana’s Thembi Kgatlana
      Taking care of their mental health
      The players are also congiscent of how good mental health is and how it impacts every aspect of the game. For Suné, reading and hanging out with her friends is a clutch way to unwind.
      “A lot of the time within professional sport, you need something that takes you away from the game,” says Faye. “Otherwise, if you’re constantly on high alert like you are within a game or within a competition, then you’re just gonna get burnt out.” For Faye, it’s all about taking care of herself – to make herself better for the game. “If you look after the human, you can look after the cricketer,” says Faye. Her method of unwinding? Music. ” I love music. I play guitar. So a lot of the time I’ll sort of just pick up my guitar and play or I’ll read or I’ll call up a loved one.”
      Players will be competing at Newlands, Paarl and Gqeberha. Support your Proteas and grab your tickets here.
      READ MORE: Creating Endless Possibilities For Women In Sport More

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      Tegan Phillips Is Trying To Break The Guinness World Record For Cycling From Cairo To Cape Town

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      Tegan Phillips is aiming to break the Guinness World Record for cycling from Cairo to Cape Town. She might seem familiar to you for other reasons: you may have seen her cartoons on Instagram, delving into motivation, life, success and cycling. Or you may have known her from our previous article covering her travels through Europe on her bicycle.
      This time, instead of sleeping on the side of the road alone, she’s got a whole team behind her. For Tegan to successfully break the Guinness World Record, she needs a medical team, security, insurance, tents, radios, filmers and photographers.
      Her motivation for cycling such epic distances? No woman has done it before.
      “It looked like an epic ride, and—being a keen cyclist myself—I became interested to see what the women’s record was. When I searched, I discovered that there wasn’t one,” details Tegan on her website. “I couldn’t stop thinking that this record simply had to exist—partly for showcasing women’s sport in Africa, but mostly for a sense of equality in this record story.”
      READ MORE: Is There Gender Parity For Women In Sports?
      We chatted to Tegan to see what goes into prepping for an iconic venture like this.
      Michelle October: I remember chatting to you about your travels through Europe on a bike. Before, you slept wherever you could. Because you’ll have a team tracking you this time, where will you be staying at each leg? 
      Tegan Phillips: We’re hoping to mix it up between sleeping in regular tents and staying in the odd guest house where we can find one. As a cycle tourist, you quickly learn to value “4 wall” sleeping arrangements not just for a chance to sleep in a bed but also to be able to charge devices, wash clothes, have a shower, use a proper loo, make coffee with a kettle, be safe from wild animals and have everything safely locked away for a night. That said, the distances I’m hoping to ride each day are ambitious (many days over 300km planned), so if something goes wrong in a day like a long border crossing or injury, there’s a good chance we’ll have to just pull off on the side of the road somewhere in the night, even if we planned to sleep elsewhere.
      Tegan Philips in Wales
      MO: At your American training leg, are there any major changes to your schedule/packing techniques/sleeping arrangements? 
      TP: The USA training adventure, which was basically riding as many 70km loops per day as I could for two weeks, has had some uniquely fun challenges. I’m staying at the Homestretch Foundation in Arizona and it’s over 40 degrees Celsius many days here (desert life), so I initially planned to do all of my riding at night and sleep during the day. But then I found out that there’s often big lightning storms at night, which is a bit dangerous. So I ended up mixing it up a bit and doing a lot of riding in the heat, some riding in the lightning, and sleeping at the weirdest hours. I was also totally self-supported so in between riding I was popping to the shops and buying ALL THE FOOD (mostly Nutella) and trying to keep all my kit clean to avoid saddle sores. I had one major crash and a few major mechanicals so was also in and out of doctors offices and bike shops. All of those things will hopefully be reduced on the trip, as I’ll have support to help look after my bike and do the cooking and shopping and the weather won’t be as hot (except in Egypt/Sudan) so it will be easier to ride during the day and sleep at night.
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      MO: Your cycling has always been about just travelling via your bike. How do you feel about making a new record? Suddenly there are stakes above and beyond survival. What’s that feeling? Magical? Like there’s a new part of you waiting to be unlocked? Or not so much? 
      TP: I am so excited! But I’m also trying to focus on the process more than the outcome—it sounds cliché but I think when there are so many people invested in a certain outcome it can be overwhelming to take on that pressure of, like, “I have to do this or else.” So I keep framing it as “I am so excited to try” rather than being so excited to set the record. And that is something that I can control—how much I try.
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      MO: Tell us about your bike! Does she have a name? What do you like about her? Is she the only bike, or do you have a “quiver” for the trip? Are you going to use a mountain or road bike for this? 
      TP: I’ll be on a road bike (it’s tar the whole way!) with a few sets of wheels and a lot of spare everything, including a spare bike. I once heard TCR [Transcontinental Race] overall winner Fiona Kolbinger once say in an interview that she always sits in the bike shop when she takes her bike in and watches the mechanics work on it or asks them to tell her what to do and she does it while they watch. So the past few months I’ve been trying to do that as well; trying to learn how to fix and look after every single tiny thing on my bike, so that I don’t feel stuck or helpless in the face of problems that I could solve by just knowing how something works.
      [embedded content]
      MO: Which part of the trip are you most afraid of? 
      TP: Ethiopia has always been the biggest stumbling block for people wanting to ride this route, and at the moment things are especially tricky. There’s been an ongoing civil war for the past two years and borders have been closed, cyclists have been arrested—and as of last week [at the time of writing] the borders which had just reopened are closed again. There’s also been some Sudan/Ethiopia conflict, and some unrest in northern Kenya. So getting through the first three countries (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia) and being able to get out without too many delays or incidents will be a massive relief, and from there just getting home to Cape Town as quickly and smoothly as possible!
      Tegan Phillips in the WC Dash
      MO: And what are you most excited for?
      TP: I am mostly just excited to give this thing a go. I’ve been talking about it since 2015 so it’s been a long time coming, and I am so grateful that my team eventually kind of pushed me to stop delaying and waiting for conditions to ‘be right’ and to just get things organised with a plan to deal with problems as they come up. I can’t say I’m too excited to see all of the countries (compared to if I was touring) because the reality of ultra-racing is that you end up having very little interaction with the environment, especially on supported attempts. It’s ride, eat, sleep, repeat—all the way ‘til the end. But I am excited to be doing it with the COOLEST support team I could ever have dreamed of, including Cally (who used to work with you guys and is currently cycling up to Kenya!), and Henry Cock, who set a big running record last near and next year wants to run Cairo2CT. There’s also pro-runner Robbie Rorich, doctor Traci Sanders and a talented film crew (Paige Fiddes and Chris Joubert). I think we’re going to have the adventure of a lifetime.
      Tegan’s trip starts on the 17th October. Donate here. All proceeds over and above the target amount go to Khaltsha Cycles to buy bicycles for women from Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, where many girls and women don’t have other means to get to school or work.

      READ MORE ON: Cycling Mental Wellness SA Women In Sport Sportswomen More

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      Meet The Firefighting Rugby Player Proving You Really Can Do It All

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      Zinhle Ndawonde represents South Africa in both sevens and fifteens international women’s rugby. And if that isn’t heroic enough, she pays the bills working as a firefighter at King Shaka International Airport. Here are some nuggets of inspiration we can all use in our lives.
      Be True To Yourself
      Most teenagers do everything they can to fit in. Not Zinhle. In high school, with no girls’ rugby team to try out for, she played on the boys’ team – while other girls were “looking all cute in short skirts on the sidelines”. It paid off.

      READ MORE: “I Trained With The Blitzboks — And This Is What Happened”
      Have The Audacity To Dream Big
      “I grew up in Inanda township in KwaZulu-Natal and there was so much stuff going on,” says Zinhle. “Teenage pregnancies, gangs, drugs, alcohol. I didn’t want to be involved in any of that, I wanted something else for myself. But I knew that if I didn’t distract and distance myself, I might as well just accept that as my future. I used my passion, my rugby, to find my way out.” 
      Make Your Own Luck
      Zinhle had the opportunity to train with the Springbok squad leading up to the 2014 World Cup. But she didn’t make the cut into the final World Cup team. So she started training harder and removed distractions that she believed were holding her back. Two years later, she was called up to the SA team. 

      READ MORE: 6 Sportswomen Who Totally Changed The Game
      Share The Good
      As an adidas ambassador, Zinhle is on a mission to create opportunities for young women and girls. “adidas has inspired the legacy I want to leave, which is all about aiding young athletes from poor backgrounds. I’m living proof that it doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you’re prepared to put in the hard work,” she says.
      Get inspired by Zinhle on Insta: @zinhlendawonde

      👏 Proud Fans Of Women’s Sport 👏
      The gender pay gap in sport is real. And massive. Sponsors will tell you it’s because fans watch men’s sport more than women’s. We say: challenge accepted. We’ve chosen to spotlight sportswomen who are killing it on the field, court, floor or track – because the world of sport is full of sheroes who deserve to be recognised and rewarded for being at the top of their game. #SAWomenInSport

      READ MORE: Is There Gender Parity For Women In Sports?

      READ MORE ON: International Women’s Day SA Women In Sport Women Empowerment More

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      Meet The First South African Woman To Cross The Finish Line At The World Masters Mountain Running Championships

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      Nicolette Griffioen — the first SA woman to cross the finish at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships (um… whoa!) — is a lover of nature, so it’s no wonder her nickname is “Nature’s child.” And you’re most likely to bump into her running on a mountain… From World Masters Mountain Running Championships to… Nicolette recently ran […] More