Worth It: Conversations on Race and Gender in Athletics

Never felt like enough of a sports nut to actually enter the world of pro sports fandom? In our season two finale we have not one, but two guests, WBNA super fans, Kiyomi and Bean! Instead of highlighting an individual athlete, this hour was meant to function like a WBNA primer. Something accessible even to the completely uninitiated but sports-curious listener.

Here's Bridget's Bio in her own words:

My name is Bridget Benson, I’m from Abington PA. Professionally, I have degrees in physical therapy assistant and sports medicine. I have trained Muay Thai for 10 years this year and also enjoy Olympic weightlifting when I’m not actively competing in Muay Thai.

I was active in basketball before I found Muay Thai after college.

My hobbies outside of my sport and work include snowboarding, cycling, drums and sleep.

Landyn (they/them) is a trans and non-binary, body-positive, all-inclusive personal trainer in Brooklyn, online anywhere (NASM CPT).

“I believe that fitness is an amazing tool to connect with your body, pour love and nourishment into your body and push the bounds of what your body and mind can do.

Exercise should be healing, accessible and joyful. It’s an act of self-love it should not be harmful or alienating or full of destructive language like “burn fat”, “get shredded”, kill those calories.

You should exercise because you want to and because you love it, not because you feel pressured to do so.

So many people may avoid exercising or going to gyms because they feel intimidated by and disconnected from binary, hyper masculine, fat phobic, and racist main stream fitness culture.

My mission as a trainer is to provide a judgment free and body positive space for anyone who feels marginalized or neglected by main stream fitness culture.

Your body deserves love, respect and acceptance, right now exactly as it is I want to collaborate with you on developing and reaching your goals and be your biggest cheerleader.”

Raised in Sacramento, California, Shayna started out as a competitive runner and triathlete from elementary through high school. In 2012, her senior year of high school, she decided to switch her focus from competing in multiple sports (track and field, cross country, triathlons, and cycling), to focusing solely on cross-country mountain biking. She also represented the national team, and won the mountain bike national championship title in 2013. While attending school at UCLA, she competed in both road and mountain bike racing with the UCLA cycling team. In 2016, she graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and went on to work as a physical therapy aide. She then became a USA Cycling certified coach while continuing with her professional cycling career.

Shayna raced with the BMC MTB Development team from 2012-2014 and the Liv Co-Factory MTB team from 2015-2016. In 2017, she switched her focus to road racing and gained valuable experience from racing in the pro peloton. She plans to continue making road racing her primary focus in the upcoming years and is very excited to be supported by Team TWENTY24, a team she knows will help her accomplish her goals.

Outside of cycling, Shayna is passionate about mentoring and inspiring others to lead healthy lifestyles through sports and cycling. She has hosted various community cycling events including numerous trips to different Native American reservations. She continues to support her tribe, The Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, where she has family ties. In conjunction with these events, she and her partner, Eli Ankou (of the Ojibwe tribe) have started a non-profit organization called the Dreamcatcher Foundation. This foundation is dedicated to empowering youth through sports, focusing on football and cycling camps. It is also committed to bringing awareness to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls pandemic currently happening across North America.

Dreamcatcher Foundation website: https://www.dreamcatcherfdn.org

Donation Page: https://www.dreamcatcherfdn.org/donate

Instagram: @dream_catcher_fdn

Chase Strangio is a lawyer and trans advocate based in NYC. He is currently Deputy Director for Trans Justice with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project and was previously a staff lawyer at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. He is lifelong sports lover though does not have a consistent athletic practice beyond battling anti-trans laws and policies at the moment.

Maggie Vimon Tappitake (she/they) is an Autistic ADHD Asthmatic Asian-American Athlete. After 12 years of competitive soccer, Maggie lost her chance to participate on a college team due to racism at their private NY school. It took 3 years of floundering, self-medicating, and searching for Maggie to find their new sport, Muay Thai. At the age of 20, Maggie started training Muay Thai as often as possible while working and earning a bachelor's and a master's degree. After 3 years of training, Maggie started competing in Muay Thai and now has a record of 9 wins-4 losses and has competed in the US, Italy and the Muay Thai motherland Thailand. Maggie will be leaving her job as an Occupational Therapist in the NY public school system to move to Thailand and fight full time with a long term goal of fighting in Lumpinee stadium and One Championship.

Alise, @ally_wellness, is a physical therapist from Philadelphia and a cat nerd. She lifts weights and practices Muay Thai. In her physical therapy practice she wants to help people like herself “Queers, Black and Brown people, folks with too much debt and little free time”. Alise loves what she does and wants you to love what you do while being mindful of best practices for your body.

"When I chose to live in my truth, that was my biggest flex 💪🏾"

Bex is a climber and routesetter based in Tovaangar, land of Tongva/Chumash/Tataviam, and what is currently known as Los Angeles, CA. She grew up backpacking with her family, has hiked a lot of trails, started many campfires, and has made her way up a decent amount of boulders.

She wants the sport of climbing and the outdoors to be accessible to everyone, especially BIPOC folx, and advocates for diverse representation in the climbing industry.

She’s constantly learning and unlearning and just trying to do her best.

Mariko was born in NYC, lives in Philly and is an Acupuncturist/ Chinese Herbalist. They are half japanese, queer/trans, disabled, and sober. Mariko is a lifelong jock, a martial artist,and cat lover. They are interested in building community and healing around Asian medicine.