Twenty Three World Class Athletes

Twenty Three athletes who set World Records or became World Champions

Cody Elkins, vegan Racquetball player

With a supportive family who love sport Cody Elkins has become a noted vegan athlete at an early age. As a junior competing in racquetball, he has already achieved great things. In 2013 aged eight he was the American Junior champion, and in 2014 he was the California State Champion and finished third in the …

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Austin Aries, vegan wrestler

Austin Aries is an American Pro Wrestler who has competed with the nation’s best and won numerous World Titles. He’s known for a range of spectacular signatures moves. Austin made his debut in 2000 and by 2004 was competing in the Ring of Honor (ROH) following success in the Midwestern States. On Boxing Day 2004 …

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Meagan Duhamel, vegan figure skater

Canadian Meagan Duhamel has skated singly and in pairs, although she is best known for skating in pairs. Soon after working with partner Eric Radford she achieved fame when she and Eric were the first pair to perform a side-by-side triple lutz in competition. She is the 2011 Four Continents Silver medallist, 2011 Canadian national …

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Denis Mikhaylove, vegan ultradistance runner

Denis was born in Russia and moved to New York, USA in 2006. He moved to New York to develop a career in finance but by 2010 he had given it up to pursue one in health and fitness. Things progressed quickly and in 2011 he took four top five finishes in distances ranging from …

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Neil Robertson, vegan snooker player

As a world champion player who has topped the rankings, snooker’s Neil Robertson is one of the best known and highest achieving players. The Australian left hander turner professional in the 2006/7 season. He was already known in Australia, having become the youngest player to make a century break in an Australian ranking tournament at …

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Patrik Baboumian, vegan strongman

Patrik was born in Iran and lives in Germany. In 1999 aged 20 he won the German Junior Bodybuilding title. He broke the world log lift record for under 105kg, with a 165kg lift, as well as the German heavyweight log lift record . His heaviest log lift is 200kg. In 2011 he won Germany’s …

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Dustin Watten, vegan volleyball player

Dustin Watten is a member of the US national volleyball team. He is now an established member of the team and has travelled with them to high level competition, helping them towards team successes. Dustin has been vegan since 2012 and as well as playing for his nation he has played in the Brazilian national …

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Fiona Oakes, vegan marathon runner

Fiona Oakes has made great achievements in her running, which seem all the more impressive given her incredibly full lifestyle. This means that training competes with a number of other demands on her time and energy. Fiona has worked as a retained firefighter, a job which meant she was often on call and needed to …

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Tia Blanco, vegan surfer

Tia Blanco has been a successful surfer for many years and has achieved international recognition very early in life. She is a member of the American surfing team and has won several surfing tournaments. In 2014 she won the NSSA Southwest Women’s U18 season and the Surfing Prime America Womens U18 season. Tia went …

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Sofia Jokl, vegan Ju-Jitsu expert

Sofia Jokl has been competing in Japanese Ju-Jitsu, competing in the Duo-System at European and World level. The Duo system involves pairs of competitors demonstrating self defence against attacks randomly called by a referee. Speed, realism, control and power are among the qualities judged, and it is known as a spectacular form of ju-Jitsu with …

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Scott Jurek, vegan ultramarathon runner

Few athletes have made an impression on their sport like Colorado-based Scott Jurek has made on the demanding sport of ultra marathon running. Scott has led the sport with some amazing performances including multiple wins and course records. Ultramarathon running starts at the distances beyond the standard marathon of 26.2 miles (42km), while Scott has …

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Carl Lewis, vegan olympic sprinter

Carl’s outstanding career includes 9 gold and one silver Olympic medals in 100 and 200 metres sprints, long jumps and 4 x 100 m relays. He was voted World Athlete of the Decade for the 1980s and was also voted as Olympic Athlete of the Century. He first achieved a world ranking in 1979, and …

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Rob Bigwood, vegan armwrestler

Rob took up arm-wrestling in 2000. It was after a tournament in 2002 that he first starting feeling uncomfortable about eating meat and moving towards a vegan diet. Like many people, Rob had been led to believe that meat was an important part of building strength. “I was concerned at first but didn’t care. I …

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James Southwood, vegan fighter

James Southwood is an expert instructor and champion fighter in Savate. Savate (pronounced “Suh-vat”) is a dynamic sport that combines movements from English boxing and French kicking. He is a multiple Great British Champion, 2008 World Bronze Medallist, European Silver Medallist (twice), 2016 World Vice-Champion, and 2014 World Champion. He is a senior instructor at …

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Harri Nieminem, vegan Thai Boxer

Harri travelled to Thailand to win the 1997 Thai Boxing title at 60kg. He beat the US champion in the semi and the Thai champion in the final. Harri was 22 when he started eating vegan in 1994. A year before he cut out red meat, and was inspired by straight-edge bands and living a …

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Heather Mills, vegan skiier

High profile for her work as an entrepreneur and a campaigner as well as her sporting life, Heather Mills is known as one of the leading athletes globally in her sport of downhill skiing. She has campaigned on the issue of landmines for fourteen years, raising funds and awareness. This included helping to clear …

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Alexander Dargatz, vegan bodybuilder

Alex shot to fame in December 2005 when he won the World Champion Fitness title with WFF (World Fitness Federation). Five years before this he had become vegan in response to the cruelty of the animal food industries. Although the motivation was “ethical, ecological, spiritual and healthy reasons (in that order)” Alex soon found that …

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Borja Perez Batet, vegan runner

Borja Ignacio Perez Batet is a multisport athlete from Spain who competes internationally. He’s competed in the European and World Duathlon Championships, taking the 30-34 age group World title in 2016. He’s also run 10k in an extremely competitive 29:25, and among his results were a win in the San Silvestre Vallecana Amateur in 2017″, …

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Weia Reinboud, vegan track and field athlete

Weia is a veterans athletics multiple world record holder and vegan. She started competing in masters athletics in 1995 aged 45, following decades of not training at all. By 1999 she was competing in Gateshead, UK, where she came second to an athlete who set a world records for the womens age 45 age category. …

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David Meyer, vegan martial artist

David Meyer has competed for years at the top of the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Over the years he has won numerous international titles at the top level and is recognised as a pioneer of the sport as one of the first non-Brazilians to achieve black belt. One of the most impressive things …

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Michaela Copenhaver, vegan rower

Michaela Copenhaver is an American rower competing in the Lightweight division. She started rowing in 2003 and continued at University where she competed at two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships and one Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) championship. In her senior year she set a Sprints course record and won an IRA silver medal as …

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Andy Lally, vegan racing driver

Andy Lally is a world class racing driver who has achieved some notable milestones. He won the Rolex 24 hour at Daytona in 2001, 2009, 2011, 2012 (read more here) and 2016 (read more here), and holds the record for the most podium finishes of any driver in this race since the Grand Am era started …

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Yolanda Presswood, vegan powerlifter

Yolanda Presswood is a powerlifter who has achieved great things very quickly. Originally competitive in the bikini and fitness categories of bodybuilding, Yolanda started competing in Crossfit in November 2014 and then moved to powerlifting in October 2016, with her first competition in December of that year. World record breaker in squat, deadlift and competition …

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Alex Morgan, vegan soccer player

Alex is established as one of the most successful players of her generation in women’s soccer – with success at national and international level. She started playing for the California Golden Bears while at University before being drafted as the overall number one in 2011 which took her to Western New York Flash. In the …

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Lewis Hamilton, vegan racing driver

Lewis Hamilton is established as the leading Formula One driver of his generation and one of the all-time greats having taken numerous wins and Championships. By 2020 he was a six-time World Champion (the second most of all time) with 88 individual race victories. His career total points score of 3563 (as of August 2020) …

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Pat Reeves, vegan powerlifter

Pat was diagnosed with a serious genetic cancer in 1977 when she was 32, which led to her adopting a wholefood vegan diet. As a result her health has made an excellent recovery and the ‘terminal’ cancer has gone into remission while but continues to live a full and incredible life. Pat has conducted extensive …

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Ruth Heidrich, vegan endurance athlete

Ruth Heidrich is a prolific runner who has maintained an astonishing level of fitness into her senior years. A survivor of an aggressive breast cancer, Ruth turned vegan in 1982 aged 47 in response to the diagnosis. She has won over 900 medals for running of all distances, some of her most prestigious include: March …

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