Sisterhood in Sports by Joan Steidinger

Author:Joan Steidinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Introduced to Sport by Partner

Female athletes introduced to their main sport by their partners are generally women who have previously been outstanding athletes in other sports. Prior to cycling, for example, Meredith Miller played collegiate and even semipro soccer. She even met Ben, her eventual husband, while playing soccer. After they started dating, Ben got Meredith into road cycling so they could cycle together. He began road racing a year prior to Meredith, who entered the fray at age twenty-five, but it was Meredith who eventually evolved into a pro road and cyclo-cross racer. I first interviewed her in 2010, a year after she became the 2009 National Road Race Champion. Meredith said that Ben has been by her side, encouraging, supporting, and expressing pride in her accomplishments, throughout her pro career. She also said he’s showed enormous patience for all the traveling that her job entails.

Bay Area couple Lorraine Jarvis and Kelly Silberberg further illustrate this model. Kelly, Lorraine’s husband, is a former collegiate track cyclist. They met playing volleyball, but eventually she started cycling with him, and he nudged her into competing at an elite amateur level with his team, which just happened to need another female teammate. Kelly’s support has been key to Lorraine’s success. He is her coach and closest confidant. Lorraine is intensely driven and hardworking, and she needs her attention to be completely focused when she’s preparing and training for events, so each year she and Kelly put together a structured training schedule to help keep her on track. Lorraine won two world championships in the fifty to fifty-four time trial age group in 2008 and 2009. In 2013, Lorraine and another Bay Area favorite, Julia Violich, joined up and won the national 40K time trial in under an hour, earning them the Women’s Tandem 70 and Over National Championship. Lorraine says that Kelly’s energy has contributed again and again to her continuing achievements; she describes him as intelligent, thoughtful, encouraging, and calm under pressure. Lorraine is one tough competitor, but she needs support just like any other female athlete when competing, and Kelly meets that need.

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