Vegan Olympians to watch in Paris!

As the Paris Olympics unfolds, vegan athletes are among the world’s elite aiming to prove their abilities on the most prestigious of stages.

Two surprising omissions have been soccer’s Alex Morgan and 800 metres runner Morgan Mitchell. Alex is one of the leading players of her generation and widely expected to continue her impressive history of Olympic success, although selectors decided to try younger players from the rich vein of talent. She’s previously taken two Olympic medals. Morgan Mitchell has recovered well from an Achilles injury and had run some excellent recent times, but was not selected to return to the Olympics where she had competed twice as a vegan before.

Vegans will still be well represented including many names we were previously unaware of.

Basketball

One of the most inspiring stories is basketball’s Diana Taurasi‘s inclusion at her sixth Olympics.  (Diana’s pictured, top row, second right). Still at the top of her game at age 42, she’s considered the all-time great of the sport and claims a range of records in the sport.

Fully vegan since 2015, she appreciates the health benefits.

“As you get older, you get conscious of what you’re eating and how that affects your body” she says. “The way you look and feel that’s really helped me”.

Olympic competition spanning 20 years may be evidence of that.

Track

The Olympics will always be known for the track events, and German vegan Constantin Preis (bottom row, second right) will be competing in the 400 metres hurdles. Constantin recently won the German Championships to add to two previous titles, and has been vegan for four years after a year after dropping meat.

“There are so many benefits, but the bottom line is that it all starts with better blood circulation” he said in an interview with Sportsirene website. “By giving up dairy products, the plaque and everything that had built up has disappeared. Now that my blood circulation is better, the muscles can be optimally supplied and the muscular problems have minimised”.

(You can read more here).

Kaylin Whitney (bottom row, purple vest) became a gold medallist in the 4x400m relay at the Tokyo Games in 2021, a year after she turned to a plant-based diet.

“I actually entertained it [a vegan diet] during lockdown during Covid,” she says. “We were still training but at that point, the Olympics had been called off and everyone was trying to figure it out day-by-day.

“I can’t even begin to explain all the benefits I saw…it felt like my body was working how it needed to”.

“Once I came into that 2021 season, feeling a lot healthier and a lot lighter, my performance in training was going amazing”.

She’ll be running in the women’s and mixed relays, read more here and here.

Jonas Raess has eight national titles and both the 3000 and 5000 metres records in Switzerland. He’s competed internationally for several years including the Tokyo Olympics.

He’s been vegan for close to three years now (more here).

“I myself could not kill an animal. So I asked myself the basic question: ‘Why eat animals if I am unable to kill them?'”

Rugby

Marina Fioravanti (top left) has represented Brazil in rugby sevens at the Tokyo Olympics, and will be back again. She describes herself as a “vegan and nature lover” and enjoys sea swimming and hiking as well as training with her national team (more here).

Volleyball

Macris Carneiro was vegan when she helped Brazil to Olympic Silver in Tokyo and has since collected a silver at the World Championships. Vegan team mate Ana Carolina with be with her again as she was at both of the above.

Ana turned vegan in 2018 when she saw how well it went for Macris (more here). Volleyball is a massive sport in Brazil, second only to soccer and the duo will be hoping to bring back another medal.

Weightlifting

Amanda Schott (top right) has taken medals at the Pan American Championships, South American games, and Snatch world Championships. She’s also taken four national titles.

She’ll be one to watch in the 71 kg class, and you see more about her training on her Instagram page.

Climbing

Alexander Megos (bottom row, no shirt) is a climber with a lengthy history in bouldering and sport climbing. He’s got ten medals from the World Championships.

The German has recently gone vegan out of concern over the environment.

“Actually I think the biggest thing an individual can do is adopt a plant based diet. Flying less only works for people who fly a lot. The majority of people though don’t fly as much as we climbers do. So in general the best and easiest thing to do for individuals to minimize their co2 footprint is to go vegan.”

(Read more here).

Also climbing will be Oceania Mackenzie from Australia. When sport climbing was first contested in 2021, she competed. At twenty-one, Oceana has already broken multiple Australian climbing records, including the best Australian female results at the World Championships, best overall Australian result in bouldering for 2023 and holds the continental record in speed climbing.

Oceania says “I don’t think a lot about it as it is just what I do. I really enjoy vegan foods and I found that there are actually a lot more options when eating vegan.”

Fencing

We will be particularly interest in Vivian Kong‘s prospects. The fencer will be representing Hong Kong, and has won countless medals at the Asia Championships, World Championships and World Cup. She’s been world #1 at least twice, although an Olympic medal has eluded her in Rio and Tokyo.

She’s been vegan since 2017 when a knee injury led to research into nutrition and recovery. Since then she’s won the World Cup twice.

“I have all the protein I need. I am recovering a lot faster, I get muscle pain but it goes away really quickly” she says. “I have become so much stronger after turning vegan.”

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