Vegan athletes

[JP]

yeah, with all due respect to Steve Holt, he is no doubt a hard working and knowledgeable athlete, but when it comes to veggies, we should only list really exeptional ones and keep the vegan list more relaxed? Besides, veggie bodybuilders eat enough whey and eggs to keep a small countrys animal abuse industry alive!

[J]

I wouldn't put Steve Holt in your list either actually, because he is an amateur, like Arlin. I guess we need to agree some guidelines. Do we include amateur athletes, bodybuilders etc or not? If so add Arlin, if not, you'll need to prune your list perhaps?

Is Arlin an amateur bodybuilder? I think we should include pretty much any vegan that will get up there on the stage as anything other than a joke. I don't know hardly anything about Arlin and if he is an actual bodybuilder then I wasn't aware of it. (Maybe missed it in the reading of the links.)

but when it comes to veggies, we should only list really exeptional ones and keep the vegan list more relaxed?

I don't know. I'm prepared to just defer to the site admins on this.
My personal opinion is that going from meat eating to only vegetarianism is a mistake and an easy way for people to go right back to meat eating. This because a vegetarian is less likely than a vegan to eat enough vegetables (get enough iron, etc) and then they get sick and have doctors tell them to eat meat. (Just met yet another person today that did exactly this and is now eating meat again.)

In adding to the list I'm thinking we should either apply the same rules to veggies as vegans or we should remove veggies all together. (Although I hate to get rid of Hilligen and Pearl.) Anyway I think this is something that Rochelle and JP should decide on. Considering how veggies outnumber vegans, they could someday become the majority on the board if we act like veggie is good enough.

So remove all veggies? Some veggies? Keep it the same?

[JP]

you know, i think we are making good progress as vegans so we don't probably want to list everyone who competes - i mean, only on this board we have loads and loads of people who enter different kinds of competitions. I think we could just rely on some gut instinct and consensus on who to list, i think the person in question know it when they are on a level that they can be held as an example.

This is not to say that we all aren't examples in our own right - i certainly would like to believe i can be an example even if i am far away from competetive shape (what ever i choose to compete in anyways!). And if someone has the guts to stand up on a stage then they wouldn't be a joke anyway Would just be a beginner and probably wouldn't need to be listed any mroe than beginners in other sports.

And when it comes to veggies, i'd just keep the exeptional ones, Pearl and Cahling are good to keep - every bodybuilder knows them (Pearl at least). I'm not too familiar with other sports, but there are TONS of veggie athletes in all fields, and vegetarianims is well represented in other sites, so we could keep things a bit more on the vegan line.

I'm still wiating for a few new names, there's a vegan boxer whose name i've misplaced. Also, we are loads of vegan yoginis, martial artists, skateboarders etc who have a good standing among their peers, just need to collect the names.

[wannalift]

my opinion:
myself, i'm a hardliner. as for the others, i don't want to be part of an exclusionary society. although i love being in a communtiy with people who share my views, i think people who come on this board vegetarian might be turned off by us being all or nothing. on the other hand, when they (vegetarians or carnivores) see how serious and dedicated some of us are and the great gains we have made in physical fitness, they might see it in a whole new context. and isn't that what one of the main purposes of this board is, to promote the fit vegan lifestyle. long story short, my opinion is anyone (non-carnivore) who competes should be up there. different category for the vegetarians. "catch more flies with honey than vinegar".
~david

[Oak]

I think it is a great idea to have a list of vegan sportspeople.

I personally think that it is better to keep vegetarians off the list. We are a vegan fitness site, and are encouraging the vegan lifestyle. Hopefully vegetarians will see vegans and see that not only is vegetarianism a viable training diet but so is veganism. I meet vegetarian athletes all the time, within the community i don't think it's much of an issue anymore.

I also would only include professional sportspeople who are or were competing on a vegan diet, or amateurs that are competing consistantly.

I think there is a really good middleweight vegan boxer called "Keith Holmes" http://www.boxingtalk.net/pages/rigler1.htm

Apart from that, i think that we will find that most vegan sportspeople will end up appearing on this forum. Or hopefully some of us are/will become sportspeople!

Oak

[JP]

Keith Holmes on the list, absolutely!

[J]

Generally being inclusive is good but I'm thinking also that the vegetarians maybe should be removed. This is veganfitness. We should stress veganism. Seeing as there probably are at least ten times as many vegetarians as vegans, too much inclusiveness could quickly result in much less stressing of veganism.

Unless anyone has some strong objections to removing the vegetarians, I'll do so in about two weeks.

[JP]

emph, the list starts to look great - definitely the most reliable and self critical list there is!

Good idea to have those quotes there as well!

Few comments:

[quote]
6. Kenneth Williams-Competitive amateur bodybuilder
http://veganbodybuilding.org/kenneth.htm

[Dave Noisy]

Drat..aren't there any vegan cyclists out there? Just one mountain biker..hmm..

[JP]

[quote="Dave Noisy"]Drat..aren't there any vegan cyclists out there? Just one mountain biker..hmm..

[stateofflux]

Great work, Emph. Thanks for doing this.

I think it's Robert Cheeke though, not Robert Cheeks.
Also, I maintain that Steve Holt should not be anywhere on that list as he is an amateur vegetarian, not a professional. If we keep it to prof. vegetarians and leave out amateurs, then it makes more sense. To me anyway!

[Malcolms Billy]

Hi Emph,
the reason that Fiona Oakes' site doesn't work is because you've made a typo! It's www.towerhillstables.com, not co.uk! It's a big site and I can go through it to look at the archives, but at some point she had a little clip on it, about her taking part in the London Marathon, and with a bit of luck - again, I'll have a look - there'll be something, somewhere on the net to confirm that she finished in 2:58 this year.
Hope this helps.

See ya!

Malcolms Billy

[Mary]

Funnily enough it is still not working. But Fiona is definitely a vegan.

[JP]

billy has a comma after the URL which shouldn't be there, the URL is like i wrote few messages back:

http://www.towerhillstables.com/

[J]

OK, it's updated.