Bec Cole sees the great, the unhealthy and the ugly of social media each time she logs on.
The gun Southside Flyers veteran is among the many fittest ladies within the WNBL — and maybe in Australia.
A meticulous skilled who has lived within the fitness center ever since she wrecked her knee as a youngster, the 31-year-old has steadily constructed her social media profile round basketball and health.
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As her star has risen, Cole has used her platform for good as an envoy for Lymphoma Australia, after her father Gary Cole, a former Socceroo, was identified with the illness. She’s additionally partnered with firms that align together with her values to complement her basketball earnings.
With that, although, comes the ugliness of humanity many athletes are pressured to cope with.
Being known as a “slut” is the tip of the iceberg.
Most of the time she simply laughs off the “keyboard warriors”.
But, simply days after her grandfather died, one disgusting message left her livid: “That’s why you didn’t say goodbye to him,” it learn.
“I saw this after the game and I was in the icebath and I just went off,” Cole mentioned. “They brought my family into it. I was so angry.”
Cole’s relentless dedication to her health has helped her sculpt a physique she is happy with. With chiselled abs and bulging biceps, she’s not afraid to flaunt it with a lot of her posts exuding the arrogance she has in herself – and the arrogance she needs for different ladies.
But not all individuals assume the identical.
In a weird latest message, one man advised her she appeared “unhealthy”.
“Hey Coley, we have followed your career for a while, me and my girls love you, but we don’t think you look fit, that looks unhealthy,” the message learn.
Cole didn’t reply.
“I don’t know these people, so I don’t speak back,” Cole mentioned.
“I will laugh it off and I’m glad I’m like that and don’t take most of it to heart.
“At the end of the day, you don’t know me, you don’t know how hard I work and I guess that’s your opinion if you think I don’t look healthy – but I know I am healthy.”
She’s painfully conscious not all athletes possess the power to dam out the nastiness and feels for many who are impacted by the barrage of trolling that plagues social media.
“I think female athletes already have a hard time, mentally, on the way we need to look,” she mentioned.
“It’s the biggest battle. I’ve been through times, and I know I’m not the only woman athlete who’s been like this, where I’ve overtrained and haven’t eaten enough and needed moments of realisation.
“Social media can be so damaging when the comment and messages feed into the feelings you have about yourself, whether they are true or not.”
As far as her personal model goes, Cole is coming off an excellent WNBL marketing campaign by which her crew finally fell quick within the grand closing collection, however she was a powerhouse with 25 and 27 factors within the two championship video games towards Townsville.
She hopes to leverage that success within the low season to raise her profile additional and safe extra industrial partnerships.
That occurs in quite a lot of methods.
“I’m an athlete first, I’m not a social media person, but I’ve got my niche and I’ve had to figure out what’s worth what, how much companies pay for posts, stories, shout outs and partnerships,” she mentioned.
“If I’m really passionate about something, I’ll send an email to the company and the worst that can happen is they don’t reply or say no.
“A lot of the time it’s brands reaching out to me. You don’t do everything, because I also think your followers know when it becomes a bit disingenuous.
“The world on Instagram is a little too perfect sometimes, not reality, and I don’t want to go down that path.”
She’s already planning for all times after basketball, with a number of media gigs in basketball and she or he additionally has a dream of competing in a physique competitors.
Originally printed as WNBL star Bec Cole on the great, unhealthy and ugly of social media and the troll that went too far
Source: www.news.com.au
