Michelle Carter has done something no American woman has done in 56 years.  She won a medal in the shot put and she won the GOLD!!!

Athlete and Body Activist

I am impressed with the fact that Michelle is outspoken about being a larger female athlete and doesn’t allow that to limit or label her.   When we think about female shot putter most of us have a certain image etched in our minds but Michelle Carter does not subscribe to that image.  She’s also a makeup artist and serves FACE while hurling the shot put.

“I’m in a sport where people don’t look at us like women, they don’t look at us like being girls, or feminine,” Carter said. “But I’ve been girly all my life and so I couldn’t separate… between the sport and being a woman.

“I love hair, I love make up, I love fashion and I love throwing the shot put.” – Huffington Post

Body Activist

Michelle Carter does not shy away from the fact that she’s not the typical athletic body type that is promoted and she has been very outspoken about being comfortable in your own skin.

“You have to understand everyone’s body was built to do something,” Carter said. “I was built to do something, and that’s how I was built. I think the world is realizing we were promoting one body type and there have always been many.”  (The New Yorker)

According to the same New Yorker article, Carter has posed for the ESPN Magazine Body Issue and regularly posts pictures of herself on her Instagram in swimsuits to shoot down the limiting labels and stereotypes.

Because of this, parents often seek her out to talk to their young daughters.

The parents say, ‘Can you talk to my daughter and say that it’s O.K.? That she can have muscles?’ They’ll say, ‘I show her pictures of you so they can know she’s good at what she does but still looks like a girl. She wears dresses.’ It releases people to be whoever they want to be in the sport.” (The New Yorker)

I think that it is INCREDIBLE that Michelle Carter does not feel like she needs to limit herself by the traditional labels that people may want to place on her.  It is during puberty that girls give up sports and try to minimize themselves because they think boys won’t like them AND because society tells them that is not who they should be.

BRAVO TO MICHELLE CARTER FOR DOING THIS IMPORTANT WORK.

All in the Family

Michelle Carter’s Father Michael also competed in the shot put and won a silver medal in the 1984 Olympics.   Her father Michael was also a member of my Hometown Team the 49ers and won 3 Super Bowls with them so the athletic talent is all in the family!

Never Give Up

This is Michelle Carter’s THIRD Olympics.  She placed 15th in Beijing and 5th in London.  This is a TESTAMENT to the fact that if you keep going, keep putting those slight edge principles that take you upwards into practice every day, and don’t give up you can accomplish your goals.