Sparta Chicks Radio: Mindset | Confidence | Sport | Women

Mimi Anderson started running at the age of 36 (after a long battle with anorexia). Over the next 20 years, she went on to set multiple Guinness World Records. Her achievements include:  * completing the Badwater Double; the return trip from Death Valley where the race starts to Mt Whitney, and back - a journey of 469km, * winning outright the 6633 Extreme Ultramarathon, a self-supported non-stop...

Alexx Stuart is on a mission to help people want to (not *have* to) make changes for the better in their lives. She launched 'Low Tox Life' back in 2010 a few years after discovering she had a gluten allergy and going on a personal mission to find out what she was putting in, on and around her body. Since then, Low Tox Life has become a thriving online education hub and Alexx has become a...

Eliza Ault Connell was a (self-described) normal kid with a pretty average childhood until she was 16. It was then, in 1997, she contracted and nearly died from meningococcal disease. She spent 2 weeks in a coma during which time her parents had to make the heartbreaking decision to amputate both of her legs to save her life. Eliza later decided to have her fingers amputated for reasons she’ll sha...

I’m back 🙂  Sparta Chicks Radio has (at the time of recording this episode) been running for over 3.5 years. In the early days, through 2017 and into 2018, I was asked multiple times when I was going to be interviewed for the show. And I very strongly resisted for all the usual reasons (excuses?) we come up with when faced with doing something uncomfortable - fear, self-doubt, who am I to do this...

Amazingly, Chloë didn’t learn how to swim until she was 11. Yet within 2 years, she was swimming at State level and eventually had her eye on Olympic qualification. Sadly, that wasn’t to be. But during her university years, she discovered triathlons which led to marathon swimming. The year was 2006 and the rest, as they say, is history! She now holds multiple world records including for the longes...

A runner since childhood, Suzy’s (injury-plagued) track career culminated when she competed at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games in the 800m and 1500m. In the months that followed, Suzy and her husband moved to Singapore for her work (she was an accountant). Not long after, and on a whim, she entered a stair running race. The prize for winning it; a trip to New York to compete in the famous Em...

Katee returns to the podcast for another important conversation about mental health. We begin by briefly discussing her experience as a first time mum during a pandemic. Next, we dive into the research and statistics around the impact that the pandemic has had on mental health in Australia (and some of the numbers are, quite frankly, shocking). Then we transition over to talking about what we can...

Yewande Adesida grew up in London and is a self-described “up-and-coming amateur” cyclist who is currently undertaking her PhD on wearable technology in sport. Previously a former competitive rower, Yewande switched her focus to cycling - specifically track cycling in a velodrome - in 2016 and started racing in 2017. Just 2 years later, in 2019, and while still a relatively unknown face on the glo...

Peter Baines joined the NSW Police Force at 19 and worked first as a uniformed officer before he transferred across to join the Forensic Services Group and become a real-life crime scene investigator (long before it was cool). Little did he know that decision would change the trajectory of his life. He is now an author, speaker, consultant and the co-founder of an amazing charity called ‘Hands Acr...

Raised in India to adventure-loving parents, Vedangi Kulkarni set out on her first epic ride - crossing the Himalayas - when she just 17. Then in 2017 at the age of 19, she set out on her quest to become the fastest person to circumnavigate the world and to complete the journey in 100 days. And while she missed both of those goals, after riding 29,000km / 18,000mi and 160 days, 14 countries and 1...

Janine Garner grew up on a poultry farm in the north of England and worked her way up the corporate ladder to become the Marketing Manager for high-profile brands like Citizen Watches, Oroton and Ralph Lauren. But ultimately the lifestyle and burnout prompted Janine to walk away from her career and pursue her own business. Fast forward 9 years and she is now a sought-after international keynote sp...

Melissa Browne first joined me on the podcast way back in early 2017 and then spoke at our conference, Sparta Chicks Unleashed, in 2018. And now she’s back with a vulnerable new book and for a very personal and brave conversation. Mel has just published a new book - her fourth book - called “Budgets Don’t Work (But This Does)”. It’s the culmination of her career first as an accountant and now a fi...

Dianne Whelan is the first to admit she is not an ‘extreme’ or endurance athlete. She describes herself as “just an artist from Vancouver”. But there is no doubt the project she’s currently undertaking is pretty extreme. In 2015, she set out to travel the length of the Great Trail (or the Trans Canada Trail) which stretches from one side of Canada to the other and is the longest trail in the world...

Jeanette McGill grew up in South Africa and mountains and the outdoors were a massive part of her life up until her mid-late 20s. And then her career took over - and took off. A geologist by training, Jeanette began working in the mining industry and she has gone onto to become a senior mining executive and was named as one of the Top 100 most influential women in mining in the world. But unfortun...

Hanny is no stranger to the trail running and outdoor adventure communities in Australia. In 2006, Hanny won the Junior and Senior World Orienteering titles. In doing so, she became the first non-European to win an Orienteering World Championship and the first person, male or female, to hold both the Senior and Junior title in the same year. In the years since, she’s achieved a long list of victor...

Eloise grew up in a family of runners and, while watching the Olympics at the age of 10, set the goal to become an Olympian. By 16, she had qualified for her first Olympics; the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. But sadly, Eloise’s early career was beset by injuries. As one article I read so painfully wrote, ‘it would be 12 years, 11 stress fractures and 3 failed attempts later’ before she finally mad...

Michelle was a business owner, gym junkie and busy mum when she broke a foot in December, 2017. After experiencing balance and walking issues she attributed to a second broken foot in December 2018, Michelle was eventually diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder (CMT) in March 2019. Both neurological conditions, MS and CMT have left Michelle unable to run or move he...

Mel is an inventor and adventurer who has tried it all: kayaking, climbing, caving, mountain biking and, her favourite, skiing. Mel also has a rare form of Dwarfism and so most commercially available sporting and outdoor adventure equipment doesn’t fit or suit her. Luckily Mel grew up with an interest in fixing things (initially with sticky tape) and parents who taught Mel and her two sisters - wh...

The TransCon is a self-supported, single-stage bike race across Europe. The clock starts and doesn’t stop until you arrive at the finish. And aside from a few checkpoints, there’s no set route. Participants map and plan their way across Europe and decide where and when to ride, eat and sleep along the way. In 2016, the race started in Belgium. And 3,800km and 13 days, 10 hours later, Emily arrived...

Molly Galbraith’s love affair with strength training began in 2004 when she discovered powerlifting. A few years later, she began competing in figure competitions. And yet it was during this time that she began a vicious cycle of stripping weight to compete, then binging and regaining weight for several years until her “body hit a wall” and she was diagnosed with Hashimotos, Polycystic Ovarian Syn...

10 days before recording this conversation, Sparta Chicks Radio celebrated its 3rd birthday. And there is no-one I’d rather share that celebration with than Lucy Barnard! Lucy is attempting to become the 1st woman to walk the length of the world. She set off in February 2017 from Tierra Del Fuego in Argentina to walk to Barrow, Alaska; a journey of 30,000km /20,000mi across 15 countries she antici...

Lisa Blair was 22 when she discovered a passion for sailing. Just 6 years later, she completed her first circumnavigation of the world as part of the Clipper Round the World Yacht race. Since then she’s gone on to sail solo to New Zealand twice, to skipper the first all-female team in 16 years to race the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht race and set not one but two World Records in the process of bec...

Ultra-endurance cyclist Tiffany Winchester returns to Sparta Chicks Radio for the second part of our conversation about her race at the iconic 1,200km Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) cycling race in 2019. This time, Tiff returns to share the aftermath of the race - the physical, mental and emotional trauma it inflicted on her, the depression that followed and how she was able to recover from it and get ba...

Tiffany Winchester (aka Tiff or Tiffo) was first on the podcast in June 2019. In that conversation, Tiff shared her background and her preparations for an iconic event called Paris-Brest-Paris (or PBP) - a 1,200km event held in France every 4 years considered to be the Olympics of the ultra-endurance cycling world. This time, Tiff returns to share how the event unfolded, the trauma it inflicted on...

[TW/CN: this post and episode discuss suicide] One of our most popular guests, Katee Pedicini, returns to Sparta Chicks Radio this week. Yet this is a very different conversation from our previous episodes. This time, Katee shares the story of her mental health journey over the last 20 years. In her 20s, Katee was (finally) diagnosed with a condition called Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder (or PMD...