Elena
“Being a woman to me means being soft and fierce and strong and beautiful and confident and loving and brilliant.”
Content Warning: Discussions of an ED.
Elena is a zealous goal-setter who is passionate about windsurfing. Her hard work and dedication to the sport have allowed her to travel to different countries in Europe to train and race, fueling her aspirations to compete at the highest level. After battling an eating disorder for many years, she has overcome immense hardship and uses her platform to openly discuss body positivity, mental health, and mindfulness. Her positive outlook and ability to find silver linings has allowed her to hold her head above water, even during life’s riptides. Meet Elena. This is her story.
K: Please introduce yourself!
E: My name Elena and I’m 19 years old. I study medicine and recently started my incredible journey to become an Olympic Windsurfer! Combining the two passions of mine is my current project and as hard as it is sometimes, it’s the most rewarding and fulfilling project I could ever wish for!
K: Describe or define yourself in your own words.
E: I would describe myself as dedicated, ambitious and passionate. If I set a goal, I will do anything to reach it and usually surpass it. Therefore when I got more into the windsurfing life, I decided on the first day, that my final goal would be a gold medal at the Olympics :) Maybe a bit radical and out of the ordinary, but that’s how I roll.
K: What is your favorite thing about yourself?
E: My optimism is a quality that I feel like has helped me a long way. I always look at the bright side of any given situation and manifest the best possible outcomes. With that mindset, I feel like the decisions I’m making always lead to that positive outcome.
K: Tell us a story. Have you had an experience that’s defined you or made you stronger?
E: A very defining moment in my life was my eating disorder that I battled with for over 4 years. I knew only I could save myself and no help would be enough to pull me out of that mess. So day by day, moment by moment I fought against that illness and managed to come out of it stronger than ever. I’m very open about that topic because so many women (and men) have an eating disorder nowadays and I think awareness is the first step to fight that disease.
K: What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
E: I would tell myself that my time will come. When I was younger, I struggled a lot with trying to fit in and realising that I didn’t seem to understand other kids very well. I usually sat at the adults table during the kids birthday party because I felt like I understood them better. So making friends my age was rather hard for me. The older I grew, the easier it got to befriend likeminded people that understood and valued my thoughts and feelings. So I would tell myself to be patient, because the people that will push me and care for me will come around soon.
K: What does being a woman mean to you?
E: Being a woman to me means being soft and fierce and strong and beautiful and confident and loving and brilliant.
K: Who is one woman that inspires you? What would you say to her if she were here now?
E: A woman that inspires me would be my mentor Nicola Thost. She was 22 when she won the first ever Olympics in Women’s Half Pipe Snowboarding. Now, almost 30 years later, she’s working on building a team of young athletes that are aspiring Olympians to coach them along their way. I get to be one of the lucky few and learn from her incredible knowledge about life and how every part of it impacts our high performance sport. Truly an inspiring woman. If I got to talk to her right now, I would thank her for the help she has already given me and the perspectives she opened up for me to see and learn from!