Caroline Buchanan
- AGE 26
- SPORT BMX/MOUNTAIN BIKE RACING
- HEIGHT 164CM
- WEIGHT 64KG
What do love about your body? My eyes and my hair. I always had trouble with my helmet because I'd finish a race and my hair would be so messy. I decided at 14 to cut it and now it's just constant messy helmet hair - it’s my signature.
What don’t you like? I was always the girl with the big legs and the big butt - but the tide has turned and they’re both now my biggest asset.
Death Row dinner? Hash browns and frozen yoghurt.
Who inspires you? My parents. My fiance Barry Noble - he pushes me on the bike and off the bike. And Layne Beachley - she’s always been a mentor of mine.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Just love it. You’re stuck with it so you've got to love it. Be yourself. Through my style and my sport and everything really, I've always done that, I've stayed true to me. It’s now my biggest asset and brand.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? It was advice from my mum: “be you and stay true.”
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/kjm_6824-lr_w3sfhtl.jpg)
As roaring flames and thick black smoke approached her family home during the Canberra fires of 2003, Caroline Buchanan thought only of saving one thing - her mountain bike.
Buchanan was just 12 years old when the Canberra fires ripped through her suburb of Duffy, destroying her family’s home, her grandmother’s home and neighbouring Stromlo Forest. In a bittersweet twist, Buchanan won her first BMX world title 9 years later, at the world-class mountain bike track built as part of a reinvigorated Stromlo Forest Park.
“There are always great things that come from the worst things that happen in life,” Buchanan said.
“I was 12. Our family home was destroyed, my grandma's home was destroyed so we all ended up living together.
“We re-grouped, and the only thing we saved was our bikes. My dad raced, my brother raced, and that was what kept us on track as a family.”
Today, Buchanan is a global rock goddess of BMX and mountain bike racing. She has four mountain bike world titles and three BMX world championships under her belt and made history in 2012 by claiming two world titles in 56 days.
She’s a walking talking sports business - international sponsors include Sony and Harley Davidson - and her fans watch “everything I do in real-time, they’re with me on the journey” through action-packed bursts of video on Instagram and Facebook.
Her platinum hair, courage on the track and determination scream attitude, and she and mountain bike-racing fiance Barry Noble are often referred to as the Pink and Carey Hart of the sport. “Because I do do male-dominated sports most of my followers are males - so there can be some funny comments online [about my body] but it’s all pretty positive,” Buchanan said.
“I love that there’s been a fitness/health boom and for women skinny isn't necessarily pretty anymore - it’s all about girls that have muscle, girls that look after their body who are healthy.
"There are always great things that come from the worst things that happen in life"
– Caroline Buchanan
“I love seeing that progression, it’s beautiful to be strong and to be muscly and as an athlete that’s been a nice turnaround.” Buchanan’s 164cm body is the focus of a team of sporting experts - including a coach, a gym coach, a psychologist, several nutritionists and a sports scientist. In the lead-up to an Olympic cycle she’s under 24-hour observation, on and off the bike, and even while sleeping. “For BMX, it’s a 25 to 35-second sport so it's very short, sharp and explosive,” she said.
“To be a good BMX racer it's a combination of power to weight, so having strength but being able to move fast.
“That's one thing over time in two Olympic cycles I've learnt to manage. I’ve been a lot heavier, I’ve been a lot lighter, my skinfolds have jumped up and down but over time we've come to where I’m at now - 64 kilos, 164cm tall but with a solid 19 watts per kilo power on the bike.
“For me, that’s my best power to weight ratio.” Buchanan knows her success on the bike is equally about her mental health. She balances out rigorous daily physical training with pet cuddles and spending time with her fiance. “For BMX at Olympic and world level, we’re all so similar that a lot of it doesn't come down to genetics, it’s more the mental capacity on the day to actually execute a perfect race,” she said.
“I love french bulldogs, I have a fiance who races as well, and having that life balance is crucial for me.
“It’s been a breath of fresh air to do BMX and mountain biking and that’s the biggest thing - balancing life and sport to ride the highs and lows of what I do.” August of 2016 was a definite low for Buchanan. She crashed out of the qualifying stages at the Rio Olympics despite being a gold-medal favourite.
“For me, it's just getting back on the bike straight away, so just ‘get back on the horse’ as they say,” she said.
“I tend to set goals that will excite me and scare me at the same time.
“I learnt that after the London Olympics when I aimed for three world titles in 56 days and walked away with two - I made history within cycling and I knew that was how I should continue to approach everything I did.”
For now, it’s all eyes on Tokyo 2020.
Madison de Rozario
- AGE 23
- SPORT TRACK AND FIELD PARALYMPIAN
- HEIGHT 160CM
- WEIGHT 41KG
What do love about your body? My back - I love the top part of my back the most. It's a shock when I see it because obviously you can’t see the top part of your back but I’ll see a photo and be like “that's quite good!"
What don’t you like? The lack of symmetry - not even a disproportion top to bottom - it's just the symmetry is the only thing I don’t like.
Who inspires you? [Fellow paralympian] Angie Ballard, who’s been my roommate since 2012. She had a bad patch but took a lot of risks and went through a deeply personal journey and a transition to break two world records.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Your body will look how your body looks and you're allowed to work on it. You’re allowed to not be happy with it and want it to look different and you’re allowed to improve your body.
Death Row dinner? Japanese food. Or a big plate of pineapple.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? The best advice I’ve ever been given is “you don’t have to be pretty like her, you can be pretty like you.” On the outside this seems like a fairly superficial piece of advice. I feel like it can be applied to so many aspects of life though. The ‘pretty’ can be replaced with ‘talented’, ‘smart’, ‘happy’, the list goes on!
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_5705instoryslide-lr.jpg)
Madison de Rozario remembers what it feels like to dance.
The Perth native was part way through rehearsals for a dance concert at the age of three when she caught the flu. While her small body fended off the initial illness, de Rozario developed the rare autoimmune disease transverse myelitis, and her body started to attack itself. The disease had worked its way up to her collarbone when she arrived at hospital in a critical condition.
"They managed to pull the disease back down to my waist," she said.
"It attacked not my spinal cord but the myelin sheath around it, and as a result I had a non-traumatic spinal injury."
The tiny ballerina was declared paraplegic three weeks later and taken home by her parents in a wheelchair. Through their devastation, de Rozario's parents Roy and Linda, and sisters Alexandra and Kennedy, worked hard not to exclude her from family activities and even sport.
"I was in a chair from so young and obviously both my sisters walk, but it took me a long time to realise there was any major difference with my body," she said.
"I would play soccer with my sisters - dad coached and I'd be the goal keeper.
"We played all through school, and I'd play too, and it wasn't until the end of primary school that I started to notice a difference."
Her early teenage years were hard for de Rozario. She struggled with body image ("not because of my legs but because of scoliosis of my back"), wore huge t-shirts to cover her curved spine and could never find pants to fit her legs ("size six pants are too big, I still to this day have to get them taken in"). It seems impossible now that the paralympic medallist hated wheelchair sports when she tried them at age 12.
"At first I was horrible at everything," she said.
"I tried a bunch of things and I was so uncoordinated - it was a disaster! I tried basketball and had no ball skills or coordination at all.
"Eventually I tried athletics and I wasn't good to begin with - it's a really difficult sport to get the hang of because none of it comes naturally, even for someone in a chair, pushing an actual race chair is a completely different feeling.
"Mum was like 'if you want to stop and try something new we can do that' but I was stubborn - and I was committed."
Committed was an understatement. Within two years, under the direction of former Paralympic athlete Frank Ponta, de Rozario had built up the upper body strength and speed to be competitive in Disability Class T53 (track racing) at a world level.
"Coming to terms with how your body looks and feels is really important"
– Madison de Rozario
In 2008, the body she'd struggled with as an early teen delivered her to the most phenomenal moment of her life.
"I was 14 and I walked into the Bird's Nest for the first time at the Beijing Paralympics Opening Ceremony," she said.
"It's all a massive blur, but I walked in amongst our team of 400 athletes and staff, and as we were walking in someone started singing Waltzing Matilda and then next thing you know everyone is singing.
"The stadium was 100 per cent packed. All I could see was the flashing of all of the cameras. It was honestly surreal, and something I don't think I will ever forget.
"An insane feeling of really being a part of something bigger. Part of a team, part of an entire movement."
De Rozario won a silver medal in Beijing in the Women's 4x100 m T53/54 event. It was the first medal to take pride of place in a glass case that now contains six medals in total, including a gold from the 800m T53 event at the IPC Athletics World Championships in 2015, and two silver medals from Rio last year (800m T53 and 4x100m relay).
De Rozario now describes her body as "perfect".
"The 'perfect' body doesn't exist, and yet we spend so much time trying to achieve it, as opposed to what our individual perfect body is," she said.
"Your own perfect body isn't one specific thing. It will change and evolve with you.
"My body right now is perfect for what I want it to be."
She continues to train under the direction of Louise Sauvage at the Australian Institute of Sport and has her eyes firmly on a place in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic squad. She's proud of "pretty much my entire upper body - I'll see a photo of my back and think 'wow! That looks great'", and loves that she's found a sport that requires the use of all of her working muscle groups.
She struggles to answer when quizzed on what she doesn't like about her body, and decides eventually on its lack of symmetry.
"Coming to terms with how your body looks and feels is really important," she said.
"You can't get out of it - this is what you have to deal with and feeling negative about something that is you 100 per cent of the time is a horrible way to be.
"I always go back to the fact that I'm strong and my body can do incredible things.
"Even if aesthetically it isn't perfect, that is so irrelevant compared to how I feel about it, and what I want my body to do."
Elsie Seriat
- AGE 32
- SPORT RUNNING
- HEIGHT 163CM
- WEIGHT 90KG
What do you love about your body? My legs. Training for the [New York] marathon was about my whole body, but my legs pushed me through. One foot in front of the next.
What don’t you like? What’s not to like about your body?!
Who inspires you? Robert de Castella and the 64 graduates of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Never underestimate your body and what it can do. And always show respect for your body - listen to it, and show it the love it deserves.
Death Row dinner? Neville’s Simur Chicken - it’s food made back at home [on Thursday Island] and Neville my partner does the best by far!
Best advice you’ve ever been given? “The harder the struggle, the greater the reward.”
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide_jszbjuf-lr_znnzpfb.jpg)
In 2014, Elsie Seriat transformed her body over seven months to run the New York Marathon.
And as part of that journey, she single-handedly inspired a lifestyle change among her fellow residents on Thursday Island.
Seriat, 32, was working as an administrative officer for Queensland Health on the island when she hit reply on an email that would literally change her life. Robert de Castella was looking for new participants for his Indigenous Marathon Foundation (IMF) and - having never run a single kilometre in her life - Seriat applied.
“Because of Indigenous health statistics I saw that email and thought ‘wow, we really need this in our community’,” she said.
“And if I could be this person, I could be the change for my community.“You can only dream. And my dream came true.”
Seriat was accepted into the foundation's 2014 intake and had just seven months to prove she could run the 42.2km required to be eligible to head to New York.
She drew inspiration from her seriously unwell baby niece Elma and started running, at first an hour a day and then up to three hours every day. She worked to a personalised training program developed by IMF head coach Mick Rees, and would stay in daily contact with him via email and social media.
Seriat would spend hours in the shower as her training intensified, massaging her thighs, her “twingey” knees and her toes, as she put her body under more and more pressure.
“No-one on the island was running at that point,” she said.
“I’d be running along the road and I’d see a car coming and I’d slow down, and then when they went past I’d start running again.
“I had to train my mind to be free, because I tended to think about a lot of stuff that would just bring me down.
“So a few times in the early part of my training I'd be an emotional wreck, I'd break down and cry, and ask myself why I was doing this.
“But then I believe it wasn't for me, it was for me to be a light for other people to follow.
"I still think today as I continue my journey I am doing things for other people because that’s what I’m about - breaking barriers and being a leader and a role model."
– Elsie Seriat
Seven months later, having lost 20kg and feeling physically and mentally strong, Elsie qualified to run the New York marathon and fly to the Big Apple with a team of runners from IMF. Mum May had taken a gamble and booked flights and accommodation in New York months earlier.
“It was a mother’s intuition,” Seriat said.
“She was standing at the 30km mark and I had tears pouring out of me and I was like ‘mum I can’t stop! I’m in so much pain!”
Seriat returned to Thursday Island a minor celebrity, and used her new-found fame to encourage people of all ages to start running and think more seriously about a healthy lifestyle.
“I help people at any fitness level start training, whether they want to do it for fun or want to run a marathon,” she said.
“We’ve had funding for a range of programs, like Close the Gap, over the years but people would come and say they’d never seen a program have an impact so quickly.
“Now people [on the island] are running.”
Seriat now lives in Canberra and works full-time for IMF as Front Runners Managers, helping graduates from the program with personal and professional development and “basically helping them achieve their dreams”.
“Mum misses me, my whole community misses me,” she said.
“I was so emotional leaving the island but I knew this would help me grow and that one day I will go home a better person.”
Louise Burrows
- AGE 39
- SPORT RUGBY UNION
- HEIGHT 165CM
- WEIGHT 85KG
What do you love about your body? My booty.
What don’t you like? My upper thighs are my least favourite. They’re big and chunky - they’re definitely strong but I’m not one to wear shorts very often unless I’m on the rugby field!
Who inspires you? Serena Williams - I really do look up to her. We both have booty so we're both similar body types but play completely different sports. I look at her and she’s all about being a great athlete. She's fit and she's strong.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? I teach PE at an all-girls school and I always encourage my students to do their best. You don't have the be the fastest, you might be the slowest, but if you do your best then I’ll be super proud.
Death Row dinner? A nice steak, cooked to perfection.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? Listen, take everything in, try everything and see what works best for you. Don’t dismiss ideas or new ways of doing things. Trust in your abilities. And believe in yourself, knowing that you've done the work.
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide-lr_wcepqls.jpg)
As pop singer Meghan Trainor once said, it’s all about that bass.
For Australian rugby union player Louise Burrows, that line couldn’t be more true.
Burrows loves that she has “booty”, and it’s this physical attribute - combined with strong legs, a strong core, and not shying away from the physicality of her sport - that makes her one of the best front rowers in the world.
“Sometimes people say ‘oh you’ve got a big bum!’ and I’m like ‘yeah - isn’t it great?’,” Burrows said.
“They think they’re trying to offend me and I’m like ‘yeah it’s great, it’s my powerhouse, I’ve got booty’ and it’s about being proud of it as well - this helps me on the field.
“It’s nice to think I’m this size and I’m good for playing in the front row.
“If I was in another position I wouldn’t have the physical attributes to make the Australian side.”
A farm girl from Holbrook, NSW, Burrows grew up dreaming of representing her country, but always thought she’d do so in equestrian. Horses were a natural part of farm life, but now that she thinks about it, so was physically tackling the family’s sheep.
“I’m one of four girls and I used to love going out with my dad on the horses,” she said.
“He was a shearer and I’d go and do roustabouting - you know, tackle the sheep down and drag them out for him.“So I think it definitely did play a part. It did teach me about how to use my body.”
Since trying rugby union at an all-girls school carnival in 1994, Burrows has made literally thousands of tackles against some of the best union players in the world. She made the ACT representative team in 1995, and three years later officially became a Wallaroo when she was named in Australia’s Women’s Rugby World Cup squad.
She wore green and gold on the field for the very first time during the 2001 Women’s Rugby World Cup. At that time, she was the youngest player in the Australian team. Today, she’s the eldest.
"They think they’re trying to offend me and I’m like ‘yeah it’s great, it’s my powerhouse, I’ve got booty’ and it’s about being proud of it as well - this helps me on the field"
– Louise Burrows
“I’ve learnt so much over the years as a player but as a person as well,” she said.
“Turning 39 [on March 11] just makes me more determined to show people that age is just a number - what's stopping me from running around with the 19-year-olds?
“I work just as hard, if not harder, so why does age or a number have anything to do with it?
“It makes me work that little bit harder to prove to people that if you work hard and set goals then anything can be achieved.
“I’m the strongest I’ve ever been. In the gym I'm stronger than I ever was before. Why can’t I play the best rugby of my life at 39?”
Burrows has a lot to thank rugby for. It delivered her love - husband Mick Burrows is also a player - and the couple has two children, Fletcher and Georgie (“I’ll be signing a credit card receipt at the shops and Fletcher will be like ‘don’t you know who my mum is? She’s famous!’”). Burrows admits she’s had to be “selfish” to stay at a world class level while managing a full-time job and a family.
“As an athlete you've got to be quite selfish at times because you do have to focus a lot on yourself and your goal and your training,” she said.
“But it’s good time management as well - I was at training at 6.20am today but before I left I’d hung a load of washing out, made school lunches, because that’s what needs to be done.
“And when I’m playing for Australia, wearing the green and gold jersey, standing there singing the national anthem, I’m thinking about all the people who have helped me get there.”
That includes dad David Cooke, who passed away from cancer in 2013.
“I feel like he's with me - particularly on those hard days where training really hurts and my legs are dead and I’m like ‘I can’t do this’,”
“How am I going to go to training? How am I going to get dinner on the table, get the clothes washed?
“Those days where you have a million things going on in your and you just want to fall in a heap and cry.
“On those difficult days and definitely when I've played for Australia, I do think that he’s present in some way, giving me that extra push.”
Marianna Tolo
- AGE 27
- SPORT BASKETBALL
- HEIGHT 195CM
- WEIGHT 86KG
What do you love about your body? My shoulders and my back. They’re quite strong and look good.
What don’t you like? My bum because it has acne on it.
Who inspires you? Cathy Freeman. She's also from Mackay. She visited my primary school when I was a kid after the 2000 Olympics. That was pretty unreal.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? It can be tough as a young girl and especially as a tall one. My advice would be to just be yourself and don’t let any teasing get to you.
Death Row dinner? Probably lots of chocolates and lollies - as many as and I could fit into my gob.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? It was from a teacher when I was in primary school. They just made it clear that everyone is different. Everyone is themselves, and you’ve just got to own who you are and be comfortable with who you are.
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide_mulplhb-lr_2qwvujd.jpg)
When star basketballer Marianna Tolo snapped her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) game in Indiana in 2015, she immediately sat down on the court and started counting.
She was counting down the months to Rio.
“I was on the court and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, Olympics is next year. What have I done?’,” she recalled.
“And I started counting straight away how many months until the Olympics. And I was like, ‘Okay, I've got 11 months’.
“I know normally it takes anywhere from six to 12 months to recover from an ACL and so I was like, ‘I've got time, I can do it’.”
Under the best of care at home at the Australian Institute of Sport, Tolo recovered.
She was forced out of her contract with the Los Angeles Sparks due to injury but ran onto the court with fellow Opals in August of 2016: an adrenaline rush that only playing for your country can provide. Sadly, the high didn’t last. The Opals narrowly crashed out in the quarter final, losing to Serbia 73-71 at Carioca Arena.
Tolo is still traumatised by that loss.
"At times I still felt really sad, I almost cry some days. Even talking about it is hard."
– Marianna Tolo
“Everyone was shattered,” she said.
“Everyone dealt with it in their own way. I mean, immediately after the game we came into the change room, I was bawling my eyes out.
“I was just holding one of my close friends, Cayla [George] and we were both crying. it was a sad experience for us but something that we'll grow from.
“At times I still felt really sad, I almost cry some days. Even talking about it is hard.”
Tolo grew up in Mackay in far north Queensland, the granddaughter of two “super tall” grandfathers and the daughter of 6’4” dad Mick and 5’10” mum Rosie. She copped every joke imaginable about her height (“Watch out for the fan! How’s the weather up there?”) and remembers playing junior basketball for the Mackay Celtics in fluorescent orange.
“We played outdoors! It's crazy to think we used to play outdoors in the heat,” she laughed.
“It was so hot in Queensland. And they used to have gravel floors, so if you fell over you would graze the hell out of your legs.”
A visit to her primary school by fellow Mackay resident and gold medallist Cathy Freeman in 2000 proved pivotal for Tolo, and inspired her to be the best basketballer she could be. She first played for her state in 2003 and donned the green and gold for the first time in 2006. Tolo’s parents drove 1925km from Mackay to Nowra, NSW, to watch their daughter play for Australia.
“It was the best feeling,” she said.
Tolo has played consistently for the Opals over the past 10 years and currently plays for the Canberra Capitals in the Australian WNBL. In early March she was named the WNBL's Defender of the Year. While she still gets constant comments about her height, she loves her body.
“I've always kept in shape my whole life,” she said.
“I really love my body and appreciate it for what it is. I was taught as a kid to really love your body and be proud of who you are and what you are.”
Tarlina Tipungwuti
- AGE 24
- SPORT AFL/TENNIS
- HEIGHT 167CM
- WEIGHT 65KG
What do you love about your body? I love that I can always be so active. Playing sports and running around. I love playing sports.
What don’t you like? I'd change my tummy. I've always had a flat tummy, because that's my core strength when I play sports, [but right now] it's supple. It's very important for when you're playing sports, you've gotta keep that core strong.
Who inspires you? Evonne Goolagong. My uncle [Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti] does as well. He plays for Essendon. Ever since he was at least 10 years old, he's always wanted to be a professional AFL player ... and he had to put in for, like, 10 years he was training. He had this one goal, and he got it.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Go out and have fun. No matter what you do, go out and play sports or go on family adventures, just go out and have fun. Whatever you do.
Death Row dinner? Bush tucker - all the things from back home [on Tiwi Island, 80km north of Darwin]. Especially crocodile and turtles.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? If you want it, push for it.
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide_pjjvhpa-lr.jpg)
Tarlina Tipungwuti is at her happiest when she’s surrounded by young Indigenous kids, all clutching tennis rackets and keen to show off their skills.
She’s a tennis coach with the Goolagong National Development Foundation (GNDF), a program started by former tennis world champion Evonne Goolagong in 2005, aimed at Indigenous youth aged 12 to 21. The GNDF uses tennis as a vehicle to promote better health, education and employment, and has produced university scholars, tennis players, coaches, and sports administrators.
Tipungwuti is part of a team of coaches who run ‘Come and Try’ days for young people in regional and remote communities.
“We go all around Australia, different communities out there,” Tipungwuti said.
“It's a training ground for kids who have the potential to become good tennis players or good role models in their community.
“Evonne gives them scholarships to go to schools to get their education and travel around places.
“I love being a good role model for all the young kids. I get along better with younger kids than I would with most adults.”
Tipungwuti was born in Darwin and spent her early years on Tiwi Island, about 80km north of Darwin. She was an active kid - “we just mucked around and played games on the island as kids” - but took up basketball, tennis and AFL when she moved to the mainland at age three.
The daughter of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) official, she moved around a lot during her early years, from Kununurra to Darwin and then Adelaide. She was a talented junior tennis player living on Gove Peninsula when Evonne Goolagong headhunted her to work for the GNDF.
“Evonne heard about me when I was playing tennis up in Gove,” she said.
“Someone told her about me, so she sent her brother out to come and look at me when I was playing a tournament up there, and he said I was really good, so she came up and visited me.”
While Tipungwuti showed promise as a tennis player, “my career got in the way” and she transferred the hand-eye coordination and on-court smarts she learned in tennis over to AFL. She moved to Canberra seven years ago and plays full forward for the ANU Gryphons - but in 2017 she has her sights set on Essendon. Uncle Anthony McDonald Tipungwuti plays for Essendon and Tipungwuti wants to follow in his footsteps.
"I love being a good role model for all the young kids. I get along better with younger kids than I would with most adults."
– Tarlina Tipungwuti
“We heard there might be a women’s team being set up at Essendon so I have a few family members waiting on that announcement,” she said.
“I reckon it’d be unreal to move to Melbourne and play in their first women’s team.”
She hopes her work with young Indigenous people, especially girls, will in even a small way help to address health issues faced by Indigenous women in later life.
“I lost my nanna eight years ago and I still miss her. She's like my number one person I miss more than anyone,” she said.
“She was still on [Tiwi] island and she died when she was 56.
“Life expectancy for Aboriginal people is not that high at all. A lot of my family, on my father's side, and both my grandparents had rheumatic heart disease. They also had diabetes, and three of my aunties have heart problems right now, from my dad's side.
“But I can’t let it worry me, I just have to be a good role model, and whatever happens will happen.”
Patti Wilkins
- AGE 66
- SPORT PERSONAL TRAINING
- HEIGHT 148CM
- WEIGHT 52KG
What do you love about your body? I quite like my obliques - but nobody ever sees them! They keep me strong and allow me to do everything I want to do. I have a good strong core.
What don’t you like? My face.
Who inspires you? My kids and my clients all inspire me with their efforts.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Just be yourself. It’s really important to be yourself, don’t try to emulate other people. Go with your natural features and be happy.
Death Row dinner? A few squares of dark chocolate.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? When I was 12, my grandfather wrote in my autograph book: “To thine own self be true.” That’s something I always think about.
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide_xxtmx8d-lr_3hysx3n.jpg)
Patti Wilkins isn’t like other Nannas.
Other Nannas don’t run bootcamps on the lawns in front of the Australian War Memorial. They don’t play pirates and crawl through cubby houses with their grandsons. And they certainly don’t enjoy burpees.
But 66-year-old personal trainer Wilkins does, and she wants more grandmothers to follow suit.
“I spend a lot of time on the ground playing with my grandsons, and we do lots of pirate play and chasing and all sorts of stuff,” she said.
“And that’s why I want everybody to stay fit - so they can crawl around and run around and just play.
“Play is really important for everybody.”
Wilkins runs 14 training sessions each week, ranging from early morning bootcamp and interval training to one-on-one sessions with clients. She trains people aged 17 to 88, and is right alongside them every step of the way, including in tough agility and coordination drills.
“I love helping people to be their physical best. It makes them happy and that makes me happy” Wilkins said.
“I use a variety of techniques - weight training, resistance training, own bodyweight and kettlebells. I like the speed work and running, but I don’t do as much distance running as I used to!
“I love burpees and I love sprawls - where you throw yourself down on the ground and jump back up again - my clients think I’m crazy!”
Despite always having an interest in fitness and sport - she graduated with a sports science degree from Southern Cross University in 1979 - Wilkins admits to paying a high price when ignored her own health to focus on a highly-stressful career behind-the-scenes at Parliament House.
She was executive assistant to some of the nation’s highest profile politicians - including Mark Latham, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard - between 2002 and 2014, and it literally made her sick.
"I love helping people to be their physical best. It makes them happy and that makes me happy."
– Patti Wilkins
“Sometimes I was too busy to train,” she said.
“It felt horrible when I wasn’t training, I hated it, and I did get really sick after the 2004 election.
“I got pathogen in my system which turned into inflammatory bowel disease and reactive arthritis.
“I could hardly walk, I couldn’t move off the couch, it was a pretty terrible time.”
Herbal medicine, meditation, massage, and “plenty of patience” helped Wilkins recover from her illness. Today, she’s conscious of listening to what her body is telling her, and is deliberate about maintaining good mental health.
“For me, mental health is about activity, being outdoors in nature, water - I love swimming and I love the ocean - meditation, and time with family and friends,” she said.
“Being healthy is about two things: your brain and having good core strength.”
Michelle Wu
- AGE 33
- SPORT TRIATHLON
- HEIGHT 162CM
- WEIGHT 50KG
What do you love about your body? My calf muscles. They're not very big, but they're quite strong and especially for running, you need to have strong legs. I like my legs in general.
What don’t you like? My arms - they're so skinny! I just don't have any upper body strength. I'm working on it, and it's not my favourite thing to be doing.
Who inspires you? Any athlete who sacrifices time away from family and friends for their sport. Anyone in sport who is willing to work hard and be dedicated to their goals inspires me.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Just learn to love what you have. Seriously. I know it's a hard thing to do when you're so young and you're surrounded by friends and peers, and magazines and TV and social media. People like to post photos of themselves looking amazingly fit … they could be people like me who have been training for 10-plus years to get their body like this. That's it. Just love what your body is.
Death Row dinner? Vietnamese food - especially rice paper rolls.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? Definitely just to enjoy what you're doing. Because if you're not, then it's hard to get out of bed when your alarm goes off.
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide_shjpkbf-lr.jpg)
Michelle Wu readily admits she has an addiction. It centres on being competitive at a global level at three sports, not one.
“It's definitely very addictive,” she said.
“It's the whole challenge of trying to do three sports, and trying to be good at all three.
“Plus all the people you meet. It's all the places you get to go to. Just the whole vibe of the sport.”
Of course, being a triathlete requires three times the training. Wu is up before 6am and starts each day with either a swim at Civic Pool or a ride at Stromlo Forest Park, and she runs at lunchtime. She’ll finish the day training for the leg she missed in the morning.
At the moment, it’s all about endurance work, but Wu said her training schedule will ramp up in intensity in April before she attempts a half ironman in Busselton, Western Australia, in May. A half ironman includes a 1.9km swim, a 90km bike ride, and a 21.1km run. Of all three legs, running is Wu’s favourite.
“I did grow up swimming, but surprisingly now that's not my favourite - it’s probably my least favourite!” she said.
“I've never been a strong swimmer. I've never had the build, I guess, to be like that. You need big feet, long limbs, and obviously you need a bit of flotation also in swimming. It's always something I've had to work on, the swim lengths.
“The run would definitely be my favourite.”
Born in Sydney to Chinese parents, Wu moved to Canberra at just 12 months old. She competed in an aquathon (a combined swimming and running event) “for fun” while at university in Wollongong and loved it.
"It's the whole challenge of trying to do three sports, and trying to be good at all three ..."
– Michelle Wu
“Someone said ‘all you have to do is add a bike now Michelle’ and that was it - I was hooked,” she said.
Wu fell in love with triathlon and trained hard. In 2007, she started winning events in her age group nationally.
“I had no expectations at all, I was just doing well in events in Australia and that qualified me to go to [the Triathlon World Championships in 2008 in] Vancouver.
“I just thought overseas racing was a whole new different thing.
“It was an absolutely freezing, cold, wet race [in Vancouver]. And then somehow I managed to pull out a really good one and win my age group and then win the age group race overall.
“I was the world champion for my age and that's when I thought maybe I should take this a bit further and get a professional licence!”
Wu’s body is built for triathlon. She’s lean and fast, with strong hips and glutes and phenomenal strength “basically from the waist down”. But she maintains it’s the work ethic drilled into her from a young age that gives her the edge in her sport.
“I've always been mentally quite tough - I think it's just been ingrained into me since I was little,” she said.
“If you're doing triathlon, you've got to be strong in the mind to be able to push through two, three and four hour races.
“Definitely when I was younger, I didn't have the same mentality as I do now. I would've quit.
“Once something started to get hard, I would've thought ‘No, I'm done. I’m not doing this anymore.’
“It's just something that you train yourself to do, as an athlete. You have to be tough in the mind to be able to do what we do.”
Ellie Raiser
- AGE 28
- SPORT HOCKEY
- HEIGHT 160CM
- WEIGHT 65KG (78KG AT 35 WEEKS PREGNANT)
What do you love about your body? My eyes.
What don’t you like? My hands!
Who inspires you? Serena Williams. She’s not only the best athlete, female or male, in the world, but she epitomises what it means to be a good role model. She's never conformed to what society expects you to look like. She carries herself with such grace and always seems to be happy and healthy.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Have a healthy relationship with your body. Every woman’s body is different. Don’t buy into your physical appearance because that doesn’t mean much at the end of the day.
Death Row dinner? Caramel donut eclairs with custard in the middle.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? “What's best for you and your baby is what feels right for you.”
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide_wuldxeo-lr_jtycemp.jpg)
Standing on the sideline, watching mum Rose play hockey on a cold Canberra winter morning, eight-year-old Ellie Raiser picked up a hockey stick.
It was fate.
Sixteen years later, the talented defender would run onto a court in Singapore wearing green and gold for the Australian Women’s Indoor Hockey Team. Raiser attributes representing her country to her ability distribute a ball, having “good, open vision” and a fierce competitiveness.
“I feel like hockey's been a sport where that competitive nature has been able to come out in me when I play,” Raiser said.
“So when I'm there I'm really invested and I’m really competitive, but it's also given me the opportunity to step away from it whenever I've wanted to.”
Raiser is “stepping away” from her favourite sport this year to work on a project that might just yield another future Australian hockey player. She is due to give birth to her first child at the end of March, but has loved the feeling of empowerment that’s come with being pregnant.
“Some people talk about experiencing a loss of control [of their body] during pregnancy but for me it’s been the opposite” she said.
“I feel really empowered.”
While Raiser’s physical wellbeing during pregnancy has been first rate “(I feel very very lucky, I’ve been really healthy”), the start of her pregnancy was an emotional time for the 28-year-old. The same week she discovered she was pregnant, she found out a close family member had cancer.
"Some people talk about experiencing a loss of control [of their body] during pregnancy but for me it’s been the opposite."
– Ellie Raiser
“It was a hard time, a strange time, thinking about someone else’s mortality when you’ve just found out,” she said.
“But thank goodness they’re well now.”
And if Raiser’s baby is a girl, what kind of relationship does she want her to have with her body?
“You obviously want them to have a healthy relationship, but I guess what I'd probably try to teach them is that everybody, every woman's body is going to be different,” she said.
“And it's not just about what you physically look like either. You can be whatever size you are and that can be healthy.
“There's such a stigma these days about what you physically look like and whether or not you're skinny or fit - but that doesn't necessarily mean that a person is healthy.
“So it’s about having a healthy body and a healthy mind. I’ll probably teach them to not buy into your physical appearance, because that doesn't mean much at the end of the day.”
Kylie Lindbeck
- AGE 32
- SPORT OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING
- HEIGHT 164CM
- WEIGHT 75KG
What do love about your body? My butt.
What don’t you like? Also my butt. Because I can’t find jeans that fit it!
Who inspires you? My coach, Lyn Jones, and all of my training partners who are around every day and are just so supportive of each other.
What’s your advice to young girls on their bodies? Love the body you are in and do what makes you happy. If you train hard, embrace the muscles that you have worked your butt off for.
Death Row dinner? Black forest chocolate.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? From a former coach of mine who said “enjoy the journey.”
![](/web/20170309034219im_/http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/body-image/media/min_2682instoryslide_smz3qi2-lr_i8wvfo9.jpg)
Can someone call Khloe Kardashian please? Because when it comes to revenge bodies, Kylie Lindbeck’s story is a ripper.
An aspiring gymnast with phenomenal potential, 12-year-old Lindbeck was over the moon when she won a scholarship to the AIS in 1997. But a single comment from her coach at the time changed everything.
“He told me my butt was too big, and that I didn’t look good in a leotard,” she said.
“It destroyed my mum. There were a few reasons, but that was a big part of why we walked away from the scholarship.
“I would love to find that coach and say ‘look at me now’!”
Lindbeck’s butt is now regularly on the national and world stages. She’s a weightlifting champion who took out second place in the Olympic Weightlifting (75kg) class at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Penang last year. Her personal best lifts include 94kg for the snatch and 108kg for the clean and jerk.
After leaving gymnastics, Lindbeck was drawn to sports where her big legs and bum would be an asset. She played rugby union for the Canberra Royals for many years (as five-eighth and half-back) and then turned to CrossFit. Weight training was her favourite part of CrossFit, so she set up a gym in the garage at home and began teaching herself to lift via YouTube tutorials.
“And then one of the strength and conditioning coaches from [the ACT Academy of Sport] ACTAS approached me and said ‘you should try for the Commonwealth Games’ and I was like ’yeah sure!’,” she said.
“It’s a really small sport in Canberra and I wanted to get involved, have some fun and maybe grow the sport here at home.”
“I would love to find that coach and say ‘look at me now’!”
– Kylie Lindbeck
Less than 12 months later Lindbeck was state and national Olympic Weightlifting (69kg class) champion.
It’s lucky she enjoys spending time in the gym, because she spends all day there. Along with CrossFit accreditations, she has Certificate III and IV qualifications in personal training, is certified by the Australian Weightlifting Federation to coach weightlifting, and is completing a bachelor of sports coaching and exercise science at the University of Canberra.
She trains for up to three hours, seven times a week, and loves training with her small team of weightlifters at Strive Weightlifting Club (“they range in age from 13 to 63”). The fact that weightlifting is “so technical and so hard” is what Lindbeck loves about her sport.
“It’s about your entire body, even though it's only two minutes you use absolutely everything you’ve got,” she said.
“It’s coordination, agility, accuracy - you have to nail everything.”
And she’s got the support of her biggest fan - husband Andy couldn’t be prouder to have a weightlifting wife.
“He tells more people than what I do,” she laughed. “He’s very supportive.”
Karleen (the photographer):
There are hateful, hurtful body shamers in this world that get glee from making people feel lesser because they aren’t the "right" shape. Worse still the voice in our own head can be our loudest, cruelest and harshest critic.
I wanted to show women and girls that even our heroines whose bodies are at the top of their game don’t conform to a single shape. There is no one 'type' of body that will bring you success.
I hope that these girls who have pared themselves back, been true and raw about their fears, their personal body loves and hates can motivate some conversation between mums and daughters, teachers and students or coaches and players, and make us all happier with the body we live in.
Bree (the writer):
How freaking lucky am I?
I loved talking to all 10 of these phenomenal women. They have things they love about their bodies. They have things they hate. But the one thing they all had in common was a deep respect for the skin they’re in.
There’s no doubt the media has a significant role to play when it comes to body image. This project is less about perfect bodies and more about kick-arse, strong women, committed to being their best. And I love that most took their one physical ‘weakness’ and turned it into a powerful tool for performance at world level.
I’ll sit with my 12-year-old daughter and her iPad mini and show her this project. And ultimately that’s what I hope Love her body will be - a conversation starter.
PS - you might be surprised to learn that all 10 women were super nervous about being photographed in their underwear! See - they’re just like the rest of us!