Vegan Athletes hit the headlines in 2016

In January Meagan Duhamel looked to defend her Canadian National title in pairs figure skating. Vegan Meagan and her partner won convincingly to gain their fifth title. More here

Vlad Ixel returned to The North Face Thailand 50k and won the 50k race. More here

Andy Lally cemented his position as the most successful driver at the 24 hour hours at Daytona when he helped his team to another win in one of the tightest races ever. More here

Freerunner Tim Shieff hit primetime UK TV when he took on the Ninja Warrior UK courses. He made the final for the second year, finishing as the second competitor. More here

Austin Aries had wrestled his way to every title with the TNA association, so this year changed to WWE. More here

Vlad Ixel entered four races in quick succession and took four victories – and four course records. More here

Following her Canadian win, Meagan Duhamel defended her World title successfully, where she and her partner also set a personal best for a score in the long programme. More here

Vlad Ixel continued taking course wins, extending his sequence to eight victories from eight – all course victories. He then competed at Transvulcania, a 46mile ultra which ranks as one of the highest profile in the world, where he recorded a creditable 15th against a tough international field. More here

Marathoner Fiona Oakes took on the 250km Sahara Race. Despite suffering a cracked rib she finished as the eleventh woman. More here

Laura Kline’s year included an unusually short race for her when she won a stair race, running 41 floors in 6 minutes. She won the Central Park Half Marathon, and when she won the 50k Road National Championship broke the veteran’s course record. Shortly afterwards she won the Washington 50k trail race – among other wins. More here

Laura also took on the Ontario North Face 50k and secured a win, beating her expectations. More here

Mirko Buchwald was already one of the highest ranked practitioners in Goju Ryu when he was invited to take a sixth Dan grading – which he passed. More here

Ariel Rosenfeld ran the Berlin 100 mile race, taking a convincing win. More here

Yassine Diboun was one of two runners from a three man team (one dropped out through injury) who completed the 725km Oregon section of the Pacific Crest Trail in the fastest known time. More here

Morgan Mitchell competed in the Olympics, representing Australia in 400 metres and 4 x 400m relay. More here

Tia Blanco proved she has successfully transitioned from Junior to full adult surfing by taking the World Title at the World Surfing Games. More here

Bodybuilder Greg Moormann entered the Naples sports festival and easily won his bodybuilding category, remaining unbeaten in the 50+ category. More here

Ida Andersson competed at the World Rowing Master Regatta in Copenhagen, taking a third and a second. More here

James Southwood started the year as Savate World Champion and in October defended it. He beat his French rival and reached the final where he was beaten into second. More here

Vlad Ixel was in action again at the Translantau Two Peaks where his run included nearly 4000 metres of height gain in another win. More here

Ben Dame ran 250km at altitude over a variety of hostile terrain in the Atacama crossing. 130 started with a fifth not finishing; Ben finished third. More here

Australian Muay Thai champion Claire Foreman fought an opponent on a big fight night and secured a win. More here

Spencer Pumpelly won his first major driving title in the Continental Tyre Challenge Series. More here

Vlad Ixel ran at the World Trail Championships and finished in the top 15%, the second non European. More here

Meagan Duhamel skated her way to another Gold at Skate Canada, despite an accident on the ice. More here

Bodybuilder Greg Moormann travelled to the Cayman Islands to pick up his fourth win in four competitions this year. More here

Powerlifter Hulda Waage broke the Icelandic deadlift record and easily won her category at the Icelandic Cup. More here

Cam Awesome took the US Boxing Heavyweight National title – for the fifth time. More here

New additions

This year we also added eleven amazing athletes to the Great Vegan Athletes site:

Melanie Fraunschiel, Austria, Boxer

Claire Foreman, Australia, Muay Thai

Greg Moormann, USA, Bodybuilder

Torre Washington, USA, Bodybuilder

Griff Whalen, USA, American Footballer

Pam Boteler, USA, Sprint Canoeist

Morgan Mitchell, Australia, 400m sprinter

Sebastjan Gregoric, Slovenia, Triathlete

Antoine Jolicoeur Descroches, Canadian triathlete

Hulda Waage, Icelandic Powerlifter

Johanna Janke, German Rugby Union player and Cyclist

We also lost two amazing athletes

We received bad news when we heard that veteran bodybuilder had died. Jim amazed everyone with his amazing physique well into his 70s. More here

A second death followed when we heard that sad news that Robbie Hazeley had died from smoking related illness. Robbie had been a world class veteran bodybuilder. Read more

Follow our site for more news of vegan awesomeness in 2017, or subscribe for updates here.