Ep 92: Emily Campbell

There aren’t many athletes who make Olympic history with Union Jack space buns, but there aren’t many athletes quite like weightlifter Emily Campbell, who is as hilarious as she is strong, as you’re gonna hear in this episode!  You might remember watching Emily at the Tokyo Olympics, weightlifting her way to history by winning a silver medal, which made her the first British female weightlifter to win a medal at the Olympics. Alongside being a Commonwealth Games champion she is now also a European champion, and double World Champion medalist and Emily has been snatching and raising the bar ever since! After winning her Olympic silver medal, Emily said, ‘“I don't look like a typical athlete, but what my body does is amazing,” and Emily’s success at the bar is matched by her success in changing the game for body positivity in sport. She is doing it for the strong gals, and this episode is a reminder to everyone that no matter what your body may look like, you are capable of anything!  It’s not been an easy journey for Emily to become an Olympic athlete - as you will hear in this episode. Not only has she had to overcome outdated societal standards about strong women, she had to self-fund her way to Olympic trials whilst living at home with her parents.  Emily’s story is the definition of inspirational and I hope her words about embracing and celebrating her body make you love yourself a little bit more. AND if you didn’t think weightlifting was for you - think again - I am off to give it a go.   If you love this chat please get in touch across socials on @joshsmithhosts because it’s always great chatting to you and come back next week for the next episode in our special women in sport series! Love, Josh xx P.S. I am BEYOND proud that this series is empowered by Nike, whose ambition - just like Reign - is to champion women and girls and ensure they feel seen and included in sport and beyond.  Nike is committed to celebrating ALL women, supporting HER journey by taking action to make meaningful change and coming through with innovative style-led products you will hear all about in this series.  I’m sure you will have already seen the game-changing new England women’s football kit - which we talk about in this episode - that includes the new Leak Protection technology embedded in the lining of the Nike Pro Short for athletes. And Nike have also just launched the Phantom Luna - a women-led football boot, backed by Nike’s most meaningful investment in women yet that has taken more than two years of research, trialing, designing and styling to develop.  We haven’t even got onto the bras, leggings, Pro Hijabs and their maternity and plus size ranges so make sure you check out all of the latest innovation for HER product at Nike.com and @nikewomen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices