E37—InvisiYouth Chat Sessions with Team Great Britain's Track and Field Paralympians, Polly Maton and Olivia Breen

Win the gold medal, it's the Olympic and Paralympic season and we’re celebrating our appreciation for sports, and the power of para-sports by having two special guests that have been athletes at the Paralympic Games. Talk about getting elite athletes that are competing for medals in Tokyo 2020! Say hello to Team Great Britain’s returning Track and Field athletes, Polly Maton and Livvy Breen. Both Polly and Livvy are para-sprinters and long jumpers (competing in different categories) and were introduced to sports at a young age. Their talents combined with determined hard work have made both of these ladies forces in the track and field community, both winning medals in international competitions and both being on Team GB’s Paralympic teams in Rio 2016 with Livvy also being on the London 2012 Paralympic team too! With these ladies being teammates and friends for many years, travelling the world competing in para-athletics and thriving, this episode feels like you’re hanging out with three friends laughing and giving advice. In this episode, Dominique, Polly and Livvy bring the humor as they answer our rapid fire questions, like why the Team GB Paralympic gear needed to have that bucket hat for Polly, and what other sport Livvy would love to compete in. We get our journalist hats on with our “Medical Pop Headlines” Paralympics News Edition segment as these Paralympians and Dominique give their hot takes on some of the biggest news stories, like the discussion of athletes’ mental health needs after Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka bring mental wellbeing to light in Tokyo 2020, their thoughts on combining the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris 2024, and how female athletes’ uniforms got way to much scrutiny this summer—including Livvy’s uniform briefs. We hit the middle of our episode with TWICE the Story Time with our guests about competing at the Paralympic Games. Polly remembers how she may not have been invited to an Olympic/Paralympic party at her school when she returned from Rio 2016. And Livvy talks about when she was the leader in the 4x100 relay at her first games in London 2012---and how it felt to have a full stadium and 300 classmates cheering in the stands.  Second half of this episode will give everyone life advice, humor and example stories for those wanting to get active with a chronic illness/disability. Livvy and Polly talk about how sport has boosted their confidence as they’ve grown into young women with their respective chronic illness/disability, and what are the different options YOU can take if you’re wanting to try a new sport for the first time with your chronic illness/disability. They chat on why doing your Google homework on how other young people have played sports with disabilities/chronic illnesses will give you the advantage in getting to join school sport teams or clubs. And we give our thoughts on how to reply when you’re told you’re “inspirational and brave” for nothing but existing in your sport uniform. We end the episode with a burst of energy as these Paralympians drop some major nuggets of motivation. Learn how to combat stigmas of what doing “sports with a disability/illness” looks like, why these para-athletes make the BEST Instagram follows, how failure is the best thing to happen to you, give the details on why your relationship with your body strengthens through sports, and why you are just as capable as anyone to do sports.  Polly and Livvy are reminding you in this podcast that you can do ANYTHING as long as positivity, humor, hard work and teamwork are attributes of your sporting experiences, from your backyard to the world stage. We’re cheering on these two elite para-athletes for gold medals in Tokyo 2020 and we hope you give this episode cheers too!  Please like, comment, subscribe and share this episode, follow Polly @polly_maton and Livvy @livvy_breen, and support the Paralympics by watching the games/foWanna support our nonprofit?Watch on YouTubeShopInstagramTwitterFacebookDonate