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Challenge Accepted: Women Supporting Women

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Prokit News
July 29, 2020
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When we started Prokit, we did it with a deliberate goal of elevating the voices and stories of female athletes. Our commitment was and continues to be that the content and athletes we feature will be 50 percent women… or better.

So when we see a group of badass women inspiring others with their messages around #womensupportingwomen, we’re going to shine a spotlight. Even more important when we learned #ChallengeAccepted started in Turkey by women raising awareness of unaddressed problems with widespread domestic violence and femicide.

While hashtags like these are sometimes unintentionally misused, it’s in the misuse that the original issues they were meant to spotlight can gain a level of awareness never thought possible. We hope and expect that is true here as many of the highest profile female athlete and leaders add to their statements to bring awareness to women in Turkey.

Mountain Bike World Champ @katecourtney

Olympian Runner Magda Boulet

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EDIT: The meaningful origins of the black & white challenge is not about an expression of female solidarity, but instead a campaign inspired by soaring rates of violence agains Turkish women and the brutal murder of a 27 year old student named Pinar Gulektin. If you like me, participated in the challenge and missed the opportunity to raise awareness and offer solidarity to support Turkish women, acknowledge it, educate yourself and others and #sayhername 💔🙏 ____________________ #challengeaccepted because “You can always tell who the strong women are. They are the ones you see building each other up, instead of tearing each other down.” #strongertogether #womensupportingwomen #strongertogether @chelseasodaro #🙏 #👊 #❤️

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2x Olympian Kara Goucher

Olympian Alysia Montano

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Edit: What is this post about? • To raise awareness about FEMICIDE and domestic violence in Turkey. Everyday Turkish women wake up to ANOTHER black and white photo in the news of a woman who has been murdered due to domestic violence or femicide . I stand with and show solidarity with these women that are living in fear of their life. This is why I am not deleting but instead editing the caption to reflect the importance and power in this demonstration. • TBH, I had no idea the origin when I originally posted, my DM’s blew up with nominations, I was happily overwhelmed with empowerment, but I didn’t post anything right away because baby life! When I did post, I didn’t think too much of it, but I hesitated because I wanted to see if I could get more information, I didn’t see anything in scrolling the purpose at first, and because we are in such a climate in which we need empowerment for so many marginalized groups of people it made sense this could be just be as the challenge was presented in my DMs . So I posted my accepted challenge 👇🏾 Women empowering women. I’m here for this 🙋🏾‍♀️. #challengeaccepted – and I thanked the women below. • I will also flip this challenge after some research, i had edited my post and ask of you feel so inclined to also edit as I have to reflect the purpose of this challenge, and now let’s see what we can do to continue awareness and help make changes for our Turkish women. • Thanks for the love @sarahtizzle @mollyhuddle @out_living_it_elz @agsb88 @mollyhuddle @imhoppe @soulpumpfitness @the_empire_unleashed @lindacrsn5 @chloejeanmusic @shannaburnnette @nathalierondou @texturegoddess @jenator @ebonymlewis @jamiemcfaden

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Cyclist Laura King, @laura

Trail Runner YiOu Wang, @yiouwang

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#challengeaccepted @runboulet

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Alpine Skiing Icon Mikaela Shiffrin

Pro Mountain Biker @sonyalooney

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Challenge accepted. I thought about only posting a picture of myself looking strong . But then I thought, “What does a strong woman actually look like?” There are many sides of strength with the smiles and victories being just part of the beautiful picture. Why post both a victory AND a crying photo? I wanted to post a picture like this because to me, strength comes from vulnerability. Crying is the ultimate show of vulnerability. I feel uncomfortable showing that emotion even when it’s just me by myself crying and it’s something I am working on not holding back. Being brave means looking inside yourself and acknowledging it all. (I took this photo when I was pregnant and losing my biggest sponsors. It was freaking hard.) Personally, empowering other women means building connection through emotional vulnerability and with yourself. This is strength – getting back up every time you feel this way, every time it is hard and you want to give up. Other women have helped me get back up by sharing their stories; by showing that I am not alone when I’m fighting. I believe strength and connection come from emotional vulnerability and empowerment comes from the belief that you can always be better. Empowerment is putting a hand up to help other women say “I can do this too.” This movement started with Femicide in Turkey. We stand in solidarity for the Turkish women who have lost their lives. #ChallengeAccepted #icandothistoo #womensupportingwomen #bettertogether. Thanks for @thek2 for nominating me and to all of you awesome women who are my tailwind!

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Trail Runner Lucy Bartholomew, @lucybartholomew

Marathon and Triathlon Champ Sika Henry

Runner Emily Infeld

Runner Sara Hall

Nike Running Coach Jes Woods

World Champion Cross Country Skier Jessie Diggins

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#challengeaccepted because Women supporting other Women is something I will always get behind! It’s good to take a step back and remember that support, love, happiness and success are not part of a zero-sum game. We are better when we lift one another up. And as I learn more about the origins of this movement and how it started in Turkey, it’s important to make sure women everywhere feel safe and respected! 🥰 So my challenge to you, whether you identify as female or not, is to reach out to someone meaningful in your life and let them know how much you appreciate them. A little love goes a long way! Thinking of all the awesome empowering women in my life, and thanks to @amieski and @katieweavs for the nomination! #womensupportingwomen #bettertogether 📷: Pete O’Brien

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Pro Triathlete Chelsea Sodaro, @chelseasodaro

Pro Triathlete Holly Lawrence

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#ChallengeAccepted – In a way that feels authentic to me. The picture I chose is from some of my first run steps post-injury, a bit bigger than normal (not that you can really tell) but healthy. I even had people on social media DM’ing me saying that I looked big, yeah it hurt and I felt insecure, but that came from me. Social media can be GREAT but it also can be toxic and dangerous. You have to know deeply that it’s a picture-perfect highlight reel of our lives, with the less glamorous parts edited out that can leave others feeling deflated about theirs because they don’t see the whole picture. I remember the pain and the struggle behind this photo that now makes me feel strong. The women that empower me show the different, gritty, vulnerable & not-so-instagram-worthy parts of themselves that makes them who they are. We are more than the manicured black and white pictures we post, we all have our shit, we all have a story. Being ourselves in a world where we can so easily be torn down Is HARD. Most of us have been brought-up feeling intimidated by other people who embody everything we’re not, it brings up our own insecurities. Society didn’t exactly encourage us to celebrate our differences and embrace our own strengths and quirks, and so celebrate them in others. So Yeah, I think it’s important to empower each other, but I think it starts with empowering YOURSELF. I didn’t even know how profound that was until I worked with a sports psychologist last year, where I realized just how much of the judgement I experienced came from myself. It’s so easy to tear yourself apart, want to hide parts, or to be less of yourself. I think this will always be a work in progress, but I am thankful to be AWARE, instead of just playing out the same unconscious patterns looking for external validation as a means to feel ok. That kind of work was and is EMPOWERING! The lens you see the world through is in your control, the way you relate to other people is YOUR stuff reflected back at you. I’m learning to be ok being misunderstood, accept and appreciate more parts of myself and letting myself be more unapologetically MYSELF! EMPOWER YOURSELF – EMPOWER OTHERS ❤️

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Summer and Winter Olympian Lolo Jones

Pro Surfer Alana Blanchard

Mountain Biker Chloe Woodruff

Editor of Women’s Running, Jen Ator

Ultrarunner, Coach and Scientist Corrine Malcolm

Endurance Athlete and Chef Lentine Alexis, @lentinealexis

For more, check out our Prokit Women in Sport and our Moms in Sport.

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