Of Course He’s an Athlete
You may have already heard about Kelly Gneiting. He is a 400 pound trained sumo wrestler who finished his second LA marathon in 9 hours, 48 minutes. This was an improvement of more than 2 hours over his previous time. And it was no ordinary marathon – according to reports, it was extremely cold and the rain has been described by some of the participants as “torrential.”
I was searching for stories about him and I came upon a runners forum discussion (WARNING: reading this may make you want to reach for the brain bleach and/or lose some of your faith in humanity).
Maybe I’m naive, but I was honestly shocked to find the comments largely unsupportive. Since I have a rule about not seeking out people who disagree with me and commenting on their blogs, I thought I’d respond here:
“At his size, it just doesn’t seem like any activity is healthy.”
You have to love a lose/lose scenario. “I think you’re too fat, but I don’t believe that you should move your body because of your epic fatness.” Seriously? To me this always sounds a whole lot like “I like feeling superior to fat people, so stay where you are fatty and I’ll keep putting you down to make myself feel better.”
“I guess it’s hard for me to comprehend how a body in that shape could PHYSICALLY handle the stress when it has to deal with the stress of keeping his body going on a normal day.” and “is running in that poor of physical condition dangerous?
You don’t know what shape he is in. You only know how much he weighs. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING. Since you’re writing this comment after the marathon, you could certainly have chosen to respect the fact that he is an athlete of the same caliber as anyone who finishes a marathon.
“At 405 lbs he probably has a very difficult time just walking.”
Not that difficult – since he just jogged and walked 26.2 miles. The truth is right in front of you, how are you missing it? Please re-evaluate your assumptions.
“The energy expended in his bid to have others qualify/validate him would be better spent improving his circumstances and his physical health.”
He ran a freaking marathon – why do you think that you should judge his circumstances or health? Also, let’s be clear, I won’t speak for other fat athletes, but when I use my platform to point out that I don’t fit your stereotypes, it’s not a bid for your validation. It’s a courtesy to you. I’m not asking for your approval, I am doing you the favor of providing you with an opportunity to rethink your stereotypes.
A blog by Rick Chandler at NBC sports (WARNING: Sheer jackassery) said, “But taking half a day to finish a marathon, and walking the great majority of it, is not really a sports accomplishment, is it? It’s just kind of a long walk to the store.”
He. Finished. A. Marathon.
How dare anyone think that they have the right to dole out the title of “athlete” or try to belittle his accomplishment? According to several sources I looked at, only 0 .1 – 1% of people in the US have ever completed a marathon. I don’t care how much he weighs, or how long it took him, he is in ELITE company and Rick Chandler can go straight to hell.
I hope that these kinds of attitudes don’t discourage people from pursuing movement options that they love. I hope that you do whatever makes your body happy. If you say that you are an athlete then I believe you and I support you – athlete to athlete!
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Idiots, morons and feebs. What the hell is wrong with people? I love the complete obliviousness of their self-righteous pronouncements. I wonder how many of them could finish a marathon. And how long would it take Rick Chandler to finish a marathon?
Ugh.
Excellent post!
Peace,
Shannon
In certain circles, it seems, just the fact that someone is fat is enough to damn them to some shapist hell. The incredible irony here is that Kelly is doing *everything* that fat people are told to do to “improve” themselves, and then some. (Frankly, I am not willing to go that route since I don’t like exercising.)
So he’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. My hat (or something else, since I think he’s hot) goes off to Kelly. Not only did he manage to finish the marathon, but he finished it bearing the weight of the sneers and derision of bigoted idiots.
I hope Kelly will keep on doing/trucking/running. He is an inspiration to so many.
It just gets so maddening. The same damn SOB’s who complain about fat people ‘sitting on their asses’ are likely the same ones who have the nerve to say something when they see a fat person exercising. No matter what evidence smacks them in the face, they’ll refuse to see it. It’s not like being thin and/ or exercising guarantees a long life. How often do you read of someone dropping dead after running or a long bike ride?
I definitely wouldn’t be able to do what Kelly did. Congratulations to him for his accomplishment, and boo to the runners’ forum for perpetuating my perception of being 80% one-upmanship, 10% bragging and 10% honest help for other runners.
Oh they want us to exercise but they don’t want to see us doing it in public since it shatters their expectations that all fat people just sit around and eat (and if some do, it’s still nobody’s business).
Rock on Kelly Gneiting and Sister danceswith fat! Keep doing what you are doing and F*** the name callers and nay sayers. They want to continue to live in their delusion. So they can dream on while we change the world!
Dear Haters: I somehow doubt Kelly did this for YOU and your validation. I can’t speak for him, but if I were in his position, I’d sure be telling all those f#ckers to kiss the fattest part of my ass.
I’m always shocked by the garbage on runners’ forums, because I’m fat and I run and I’ve never experienced anything other than support from the community in person. Of course, for all I know maybe they go home and trash me on the internet, but it just makes me wonder if that crap comes from any actual runners.
This is so awesome. I’m in awe of anyone who finishes a marathon no matter how much of it they walk. It’s over 26 friggin’ miles which a lot of people won’t even drive for anything other than a special occasion!
How dare these self righteous, jealous assholes. I hope that their hatefulness doesn’t discourage him.
I am loving all the responses.