by StuyWis Leadership
Mary Cecillia Cain: a name mentioned during after school track practice, coupled with my curiosity, led me to look her up on google. Watching a video the New York Times titled, “I was the fastest Girl in America, until I joined Nike,” I was inspired by her sheer determination, and the motivations she expressed to become a top athlete. During her high school years, she became the youngest competitor to participate in a World Championship meet and was widely recognized for her talent. She represented the Bronxville High School team, and her plaques are even located at the famous track, The Armory, located in Washington Heights, New York. After researching more on her life, her plethora of accomplishments left me in awe. I was incredibly impressed and inspired by her strength and bravery when it came to calling out a big company like Nike.
Being called into the professional sports world as a female teen was a huge deal, however, it would spell bad news for Mary Cain. Her coach, Alberto Salazar and other staff members from the Nike Oregon project would take advantage of her trust; she was placed under the spotlight, a terrifying one. Her own mentors pushed her to lose weight, to stay under a certain number of pounds, and even weighted her in front of her teammates and shamed her. This mentally and physically abused her, leading to major body image issues, loss of self esteem, and enthusiasm for her race days. Mary Cain had a long process of recovery in which she obtained her self-love again and found her love in running again. This made me think, if this happens in a professional sports team, what happens in collegiate, club teams, or even high school girls teams? That is when I decided to make a change, and founded StuyWIS.
StuyWIS is a platform for female athletes to feel welcome and create a community together, regardless of the sport they play or when they decided to start playing. Our focus is to bring light to major issues in women’s athletics, and speak about the unfair treatment given to bright female stars. We are also a blog and publication dedicated to writing about female athletes’ accomplishments and achievements, discussing important issues such as body image, and posting related topics such as post-workout recipes!
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