Your best is enough.
2x Olympian and 4x Commonwealth Games competitor, Eloise Wellings joins me on Sparta Chicks Radio this week.
Eloise is also an Ambassador for Ubiquinol and the co-founder of an extraordinary organisation called the Love Mercy Foundation.
Eloise grew up in a family of runners and, while watching the Barcelona Olympics at the age of 10, set the goal to become an Olympian.
By 16, she had qualified for her first Olympics; the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
But sadly, Eloise’s early career was beset by injuries. As one article I read so painfully wrote, ‘it would be 12 years, 11 stress fractures and 3 failed attempts later’ before she finally made her Olympic debut at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Eloise and I recorded this conversation in midst of the Covid-19 crisis and so that’s where we start our conversation today - with how she’s navigated the impact of it with two small children at home and how it’s affected her training and her attempts to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (now being held in 2021).
We also discuss:
* why the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics has worked in her favour,
* the importance of focusing on what you can control - now more than ever,
* why she’s struggled with motivation just like the rest of us throughout this period (even with the ‘carrot’ of Olympic qualification dangling in front of her),
* what prompted her to decide she wanted to make her career from running at the age of 15,
* resilience and how she kept bouncing back from “12 years, 11 stress fractures and 3 failed” Olympic campaigns,
* how her friendship with Julius Achon (and ultimately the Love Mercy Foundation) came from one of her darkest times in the sport,
* when she started to realise her diet was contributing to her stress fractures, and how it took 6 years for her to break the cycle of thoughts that underpinned her eating disorder (and even longer to recover from the physical affects),
* the importance of finding your identity away from what you do - whether you’re an elite or recreational athlete,
* the main challenge she faces balancing life as an elite athlete and a mother of two young kids,
* the surprisingly simple yet effective strategy she uses to transition mentally between the various aspects of her life, and
* her experience with the Imposter Complex, and her strategy for navigating it.
Finally, we discuss the Love Mercy Foundation which she co-founded with Ugandan Olympian and former child soldier, Julius Achon that works to empower communities in Northern Uganda to overcome poverty caused by the horrors of war.
And Eloise shares how you can help to support the work of Love Mercy by participating in their virtual “Mother Run” which is on this month now (May, 2020).
Click here to listen on iTunes.
Notes and resources:
To find out more about Eloise or to say hello, you can find her on Instagram.
You can find the the virtual 'Mother Run' here or follow Love Mercy Foundation on Instagram, Facebook or via the website.
Here are details of the virtual 'Mother Run'.
Eloise is an Ambassador for Ubiquinol.
