Team GB athlete and four-time Olympian Eilish McColgan has hit out at the ‘morons’ who have sexist things to say about her body after completing the London Marathon with an exploded foot.
The long-distance athlete, who came in seventh despite her bloodied foot, has taken to an unlikely social media platform to issue a statement after running the marathon.
McColgan, 35, shared how she usually feels safe on the platform to share her work-related achievements, but that it had been tainted with a few people who had decided to express their opinions on the way her body looks.
The athlete said she had once believed LinkedIn – the professional networking platform – to be a safe place to post about her career.
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However, underneath images of herself having completed the marathon, there was one who thought it best to judge her on her looks, not on her athleticism.
The athlete wrote alongside a screenshot of the comment: “I’ve always found LinkedIn to be one of the safer spaces to share my career and performances. It feels more accountable. More respectful. More human. I guess it's because our profiles have a name, picture and are linked to an employer.”
She added: “But even on here… there are still morons! I've covered his name/photo - despite his follow up reply being even more ridiculous... And honestly, I’m not sure why I still feel the need to protect people who are SO comfortable being openly disrespectful!”
The comment in question came from a man whose identity she had covered, but his professionalism in IT Operations was visible to see underneath the area where his name would be.
He wrote of McColgan’s body at the finish line: “Not sexy. Long-distance runners look like flying skeletors.”
To this, she lamented that 'it’s easier to assume something’s not quite right with their mind, or that they’re simply lacking any real-world awareness of how to interact with other humans’, but it’s their bold and public comments that are shocking.
Speaking on her lack of social media usage due to comments like this, she said online, ‘suddenly your body, your performance, your career are all up for debate by strangers who know absolutely nothing about you nor the sport.’
McColgan went on to say that she’s ‘pushing’ for basic respect online, even in the face of ‘morons’ like this person.
However, many underneath the post wanted her to ‘name and shame’ the man, claiming he’ll do it again to someone else if he’s not called out.
But others said he’s likely to just go after smaller accounts to save himself from being platformed by someone with as many followers as McColgan.
Seems like you can’t win being a woman online.
Topics: Sport, London Marathon, UK News, Social Media
Britt Jones