People have been wondering exactly why Team USA's shot put star Raven Saunders has been wearing a mask at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 28-year-old athlete made a name for themselves at the Tokyo Olympics having won silver, and is vying for gold at the Paris Games.
It has emerged that Saunders has faced many barriers in their journey, including mental health struggles and injuries.
Despite this, i News reports that their 'mantra' is that 'nothing in the world will stop me being great'.
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Saunders, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, told the outlet: "I am constantly sitting myself down and looking in that mirror and reminding myself, ‘You’re Raven, The Hulk. You will achieve it.’"
Saunders has debuted a fresh look at the 2024 Olympics, including purple and green hair - but the thing that has people talking the most is the face mask.
The reasoning is pretty simple - when trying out for Olympic qualifying events in 2020 and 2021, athletes had no other choice but to wear masks due to Covid rules at the time.
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Saunders eventually got used to wearing the mask while shot putting, so it stuck around.
Furthermore, they discovered that wearing the mask stopped them from 'getting caught up in pre-competition chat'.
It helped Saunders focus on their mind rather than anything else.
As for why Saunders refers to themselves as the Hulk, they told Yahoo: "Early on, similar to the Hulk, I had a tough time differentiating between the two; I had a tough time controlling when the Hulk came out or when the Hulk didn’t come out.
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"But through my journey, especially dealing with mental health and things like that, I learned how to compartmentalise, the same way that Bruce Banner learned to control the Hulk, learned how to let the Hulk come out during the right moments and that way it also gave him a sign of mental peace.
“But when the Hulk came out, the Hulk was smashing everything that needed to be smashed.”
As for what competing in the Olympics means to them, the athlete added: "Everything that I’ve been through mental health-wise, injuries, everything like that, financial, really being able to invest everything that I have mentally and physically ... [to] be able to walk away with a medal and inspire so many people in the LGBTQ community, so many people who have been dealing with mental health issues, so many of the African-American community, so many people who are Black all around the world, I really hope that I can inspire and motivate.”
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After throwing 18.62 metres, Saunders qualified for the women's shot put final which will take place tomorrow (9 August).
Topics: Olympics, Sport, Mental Health, LGBTQ
Kya Buller