Latest news with #GivingBacktoTrack
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Eilish McColgan announces engagement with photos of fiancé Michael Rimmer proposing at Mount Fuji
Scots athletics star Eilish McColgan has announced she is due to marry her boyfiend and coach Michael Rimmer. Distance runner McColgan, 34, let fans know the good news by sharing a photo of the moment fellow athlete Rimmer, 39, proposed to her during a trip to Mount Fuji, in Japan. A series of images showed Rimmer down on one knee as he held out the ring to a delighted McColgan. Alongside the photos, McColgan wrote: 'Absolutely worth the jet lag. Yes to forever! #offthemarket' Fans on Instagram rushed to congratulate the couple, who have been together for more than a decade. Scottish radio DJ Jennifer Reoch wrote: 'Aww huge congratulations!' Fellow athlete Dame Kelly Homes wrote simply: 'Congratulations' as did English middle-distance runner Keely Hodgkinson. Rimmer, a three-time Olympian himself at 800m, has been invaluable as a coach for McColgan since retiring from the sport. McColgan, from Dundee, previously said: 'A lot of people who aren't athletes probably find it bizarre we spend 24 hours of the day together. 'We're in each other's pockets all the time but it just works. I just feel so much more relaxed when he's around me. 'It's essentially like having my best friend with me at every moment of my life – through the highs, the lows. 'It's a big commitment on his behalf too. But he's retired now and I feel he's shifted all his energy. So when I stand on the start line I feel like I'm not just doing it for myself.' As well as training together, the couple are business partners, having set up a not-for-profit organisation Giving Back to Track together to help support young athletes a few years ago. The not-forprofit initiative aims to remove the financial barriers to young people becoming involved in athletics. The good news of the couple's engagement also comes hot on the heels of McColgan's success at the London Marathon at the weekend where she not only beat her famous mother Liz's record but also set a new Scottish record. In her first race over 26.2 miles, the 34-year-old finished eighth in a time of 2hr 24min 25sec - a place ahead of fellow Brit Rose Harvey. That was more than two minutes faster than the best time of her mum - who won there in 1996 - as well as breaking Steph Twell's previous Scottish marker of 2:26:40 set in Frankfurt in 2019. After the race, McColgan, who was ruled out of the London race two years ago with a knee injury, had said: 'I'm really proud of myself today. 'I'm happy to break my mum's record. That was the main goal. I've broken every one of my mum's PBs now, so that was a really special thing to do within the family.'
Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Eilish McColgan: Teacher sent me ‘body-shaming' abuse
Eilish McColgan says a school teacher has been amongst those who have abused her on social media over her body shape. McColgan, who will make her London Marathon debut on Sunday, said that she quickly hit back at the teacher, who also had a daughter, calling her comments a disgrace, before they vanished and the account was suddenly deleted. With the London Marathon organisation itself taking the decision to come off the social media platform X in protest at some of its unpleasant content, McColgan has suggested that making an account should become subject to mandatory verification. The issue came to prominence last month when McColgan's mother, Liz, a winner of the London Marathon, highlighted some of the abuse her daughter had received. Eilish, a four-time Olympian and the reigning 10,000m Commonwealth Games champion, Eilish has her own charity, Giving Back to Track, which aims to help young female athletes on their journeys, and she still believes she can do more good by staying on social media. 'I think verification would make a big difference… where someone has to link their passport or something because, at the moment, a lot of it's nameless and faceless,' she said. 'I always find it bizarre when people have their name and their face on there and they're fully brazen. 'A woman actually said something about my body shape, and she had a young girl in her profile picture who was actually her daughter and then she was a teacher. I wrote to her to say the fact that you are openly writing this on my page as a school teacher with a daughter is a disgrace. And then obviously they vanish. They delete it because they panic. 'A lot of the comments are men. One guy had three young daughters, and one of the comments he made was quite a sexualised comment. I wrote back to him saying, 'Could you imagine someone saying this to your daughters?' And then obviously he started to panic and thought, 'Oh, actually, yeah, you're right'. 'I think they just assume you're like a robot. You're not actually a human. You're not a person. You don't have a mum, a dad, a partner who's going to read that sort of stuff. It's very bizarre. I think maybe verification could be a pretty quick way, I think, to eradicate a lot of these messages.' McColgan also highlighted the impact on her parents and why she will continue to post messages that are inspiring a much larger community of positive followers. ' It affects my mum way more than it affects me,' she said. 'For her, social media is relatively new. Whereas for me, I've become pretty numb to it. Some of them make me laugh. I just think it's so ridiculous. 'The only reason I call it out from time to time is that I know I have a lot of young kids who follow me, and I don't want them to read it and think that the reason I'm breaking the British record, or I'm fast, is because I starve myself to do it, or that skinny means fast. 'That's just such a bad narrative. It's also just not real. In order to get longevity in your career, your utmost priority is looking after yourself and your body. And it doesn't matter what these people online think. They're not your family, they're not your friends, they're people who are irrelevant. 'Someone on Linkedin said to me, 'Oh, you know you should just come off social media and just remove yourself entirely'. But why are you going to be teaching kids in school if they get bullied to stop going to school, or just stop doing what you enjoy because one person's ruining it for you? 'I have my own not-for-profit [charity] in Scotland, which is supporting young female athletes, and there's so many of them that get fed so much wrong information throughout their careers. 'And then it gets to the point where they just end up in horrible, vicious injury cycles and then just vanishing from sports. It's why we lose so many kids from the sport. So again, I think that's why I call it out.' McColgan also now hopes to draw something of a line under the issue, understandably wanting the focus to return to her performances where she will make an eagerly awaited marathon debut on Sunday in an exceptional women's field. Her mother's Scottish record is one immediate goal and, longer term, she hopes to compete in what would be her fifth Olympics over the 26.2-mile course in Los Angeles. She says that Sunday feels like a step into the unknown, admitting that she had never been more scared before a race but that the overriding feeling was still one of excitement.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Eilish McColgan calls for passport ID to combat ‘faceless' social media bullies
'The reason I call it out is that I have a lot of young kids who follow me,' says Eilish McColgan. 'The reason I call it out is that I have a lot of young kids who follow me,' says Eilish McColgan. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA Eilish McColgan has revealed that she has even been body-shamed by school teachers, as she called for social media companies to use formal identification to prevent the abuse she faces every day. But McColgan, who will make her London Marathon debut on Sunday, has vowed to defy the bullies by staying on social media even though she was accused of 'looking like a skeleton' and having anorexia when her mum, Liz, reposted a video of her training last month. Advertisement Related: London Marathon organisers boycott X over 'descent into gutter' under Musk 'Having a verified account where someone has to link their passport would make a big difference, because at the moment a lot of it is nameless and faceless,' said McColgan. 'I think they just assume you're like a robot. You're not actually a human. You're not a person. You don't have a mum, a dad, a partner who's going to read that sort of stuff. It's very bizarre. 'It affects my mum way more than it affects me. Whereas for me, I've become pretty numb to it. The only reason I call it out is that I have a lot of young kids who follow me, and I don't want them to think that the reason I'm breaking the British record, or I'm fast, is because I starve myself to do it or that skinny means fast.' However McColgan admitted that she was stunned that people who hadn't hidden their identities were also prepared to abuse her. Advertisement 'I always find it bizarre when people have their name and face on there and they're fully brazen,' she said. 'One woman actually said something about my body shape, who was a teacher, and she had a young girl in her profile picture. So I wrote to her to say that the fact that you are openly writing this on my page as a school teacher with a daughter is a disgrace. And then obviously they vanish. They delete it because they panic. 'There was one guy who had three young daughters, and one of the comments he made was quite sexualized. I wrote back to him saying, 'Could you imagine someone saying this to your daughters?' They don't think. But despite all the abuse, McColgan insisted that she would stay on platforms such as Instagram. 'Someone said to me, you should just come off social media,' she said. 'But would you tell kids that if they get bullied at school to stop going? Or to stop doing what they enjoy because one person is ruining it for you? Why should I change what I do just because of somebody that's irrelevant for me? That is my mindset. Advertisement 'I've had a couple of people message me saying they get bullied at school because of the way they look, so it's helped them,' added McColgan, whose non-profit Giving Back to Track helps young athletes. 'It gives them a little bit more confidence to fight their corner. So that's really the only reason I do call it out. 'I would have loved to have been able to pop Kelly Holmes a message. But it's also trying to get it across to the next generation that in order to get longevity in your career, your utmost priority is looking after your body. And it doesn't matter what these people online think. They're not your family, they're not your friends, they're people who are irrelevant. ' McColgan has set her sights on beating her mum's personal best of 2hr 26min 52sec in what will be her debut marathon. In reality she may run several minutes quicker, although she admits she is nervous about running the distance for the first time. 'I'm absolutely bricking it,' she said. 'I've never been this scared. It's just a complete unknown. I've run 21 miles in training. We've never got anywhere near 26, so what happens after 20 miles? I don't know, but there's 55,000 other people on the start line all thinking the exact same thing. 'I'm super nervous, but there's really an overriding feeling of excitement. I can't wait to be on the streets with people cheering us, and having that sort of buzz in a race.'
