When I decided to try vegan/plant-based diet, I was checking who all are following the same. Its quite easy to find about celebrities and sports personalities about their diet and fitness regime online. So I found a long list and read about them in detail. I also got to know about many vegan sports personalities after watching few documentary movies. So here are my 5 favourite vegan sports personalities.
1. Venus Williams
The woman tennis pro who took the tennis world into a whirlwind with her strong game turned vegan in 2011 after being diagnosed with Sjögren\’s syndrome. It’s an auto-immune disease which is diagnosed with dry eyes and dry mouth. As she started with a raw vegan diet, slowly her symptoms started reducing and she came back on the tennis court stronger than ever. This inspired her so much that, recently she launched her vegan protein brand called “Happy Viking”. This plant protein is made for the vegetarian and vegan sports personalities to gain enough energy and muscle post their workout. She also inspired her sister Serena Williams to adopt the plant-based diet too.
2. Novak Djokovic
There’s no tennis fan out there who is not aware of Novak’s vegan diet. Presently, he is 35 years old and is on the verge of retiring from the game. But his strong and strategic game is still keeping him and his competitors on their toes. To him, plant-based diet is not just a diet, it’s a lifestyle to him which he adopted due to ethical reasons. He is against of slaughtering and torturing animals in any way.
3. Lewis Hamilton
Lewis has always been actively advocating vegan diet for years. Many of you might be knowing that he owns a chain of vegan fast food restaurant named, “Neat Burger”. He switched to the plant-based diet in 2017 after watching a Netflix documentary film called, “What the Health”. He gives all the credit to the vegan diet, for his energy shift. He says, “I have more energy; I\’m so much more productive. I wake up feeling way better, clearer in thought and fresher in my body.”
4. Dotsie Bausch
The famous Olympic silver medalist is a well known speed cyclist. She turned vegan too and she is a big time animal lover. After her retirement, she established Switch4Good, a non-profit organisation focused on cruelty of dairy industry and health. She expressed her concern, “I found, however, the switch to plants had the exact opposite effect—I felt like it became my secret weapon. I could breathe better during training and literally ride circles around my teammates who were many years my junior.” She is also closely working with many animal rescuing NGOs to protect the animals and their rights for protection.
5. Alex Morgan
Alex Morgan is a well renowned American FIFA women’s World Cup champion and an Olympic gold medalist is known for her powerful game as a striker. She is a plant-based diet follower and in 2019, was also named as PETA’s most beautiful vegan celebrity alongside her fellow colleague, Kriemhild Irving. She said, “I never thought it was possible I could be playing at an elite level as a professional athlete with a plant-based diet. Then I realized it wasn\’t detrimental at all. I am passionate about giving animals a voice. I adopted a vegetable diet because it didn\’t feel fair to have a dog I adore and yet eat meat all the time.” When she is free, she also advocates for shelter of the pet adoption.
So here’s my list of favourite 5 vegan sports personalities. In future, I’m planning to write about my favourite 5 female vegan sports personalities. Due to this COVID19, global warming and various other climate crisis; many people are turning to plant-based diet and they are avoiding eating meat. I know few of my friends who own pet dogs and that’s why they gave up on eating meat.