SELF Magazine

Welcome to SELF’s annual Sneaker Awards! This year, 50 brands submitted 167 styles and at the end of our rigorous testing process, 30 winners came out on top—30 winners that we are thrilled to share with you. To choose the best of the best, SELF staffers slipped on nominated pairs for jogs, cardio dance classes, rugged hikes, races, leisurely dog walks, weightlifting sessions, and, for the very first time, tennis and pickleball matches. Each shoe was rated on a scale from 1 to 10 and graded using a range of criteria including fit, shape, feel, and style. All in all, the testing pool included marathoners, city planners, new parents, National Park service rangers, med students, manufacturing workers, engineers, and teachers—just to name a few. We chose winners that not only performed well for their intended activity, but also suited our testers’ feet, held up during multiple outings, and looked good too. After weeks of testing, everyone’s raves and rants were compiled into a final list of 30 all-around winners for all your running, walking, hiking, cycling, lifting, and bopping-around-town needs. Tap here to get the full list, and be sure to share your personal favorites in the comments below: https://lnkd.in/gtn2DPmn

These highlights are making us very eager for Los Angeles 2028.

Here’s how the Olympian keeps symptoms like fatigue and dizziness in check.

Kyle DeLeon was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2018. After having a lifesaving surgery, he learned to embrace his queerness like never before and harness his newfound confidence into cancer advocacy work with ACS CAN. Cancer impacts everyone, but it doesn’t impact everyone equally. At ACS CAN, we're working to ensure everyone has a fair and just opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. We're grateful for people like Kyle who are champions of health equity and essential in our fight to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. Read Kyle's story in SELF Magazine: https://lnkd.in/eHYUm5Kv Find out how to get involved in cancer advocacy with ACS CAN: https://lnkd.in/emtFrA2u

#Paris2024 offers all athletes free health care in the Olympic Village and US Rugby player Ariana Ramsey is shamelessly taking advantage of the perk. She tells SELF Magazine that she's now fully on track to become a universal health care advocate. “America needs to do better with their health care system. There is no reason why me, an American girl, should be so amazed by [this].”

The Paris Games have not just showcased the best athletic talent on the planet, but also put us on notice: Joy is back. I was happy to write about it for SELF Magazine. https://lnkd.in/grt-YRrU

Marion Jones is ready to reintroduce herself. At the start of the millennium, the USA track and field phenom defined superhuman speed. During her era of the sport, Jones appeared on the covers of Time, Vogue, and Sports Illustrated; and brought in millions in endorsement deals. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, she became the first woman to win five medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. But in 2007, amid intense scrutiny and suspicion around steroid use among track athletes, Jones disclosed that she provided false statements to federal investigators and admitted to using banned substances in the 2000 Olympic Games. Although she didn’t test positive on a drug test during this period, she was stripped of her medals (which she had already voluntarily returned), had her results disqualified, and was banned from the 2008 Olympics. She was also sentenced to six months in prison for perjury. After more than 10 years out of the spotlight, Jones, now 48, is opening up about what she’s been up to and her journey of self-forgiveness. The mother of three came out in an Instagram post in June, sharing her partner of a decade, Adele, publicly for the first time. During a banner year for women’s sports, she wants to empower the next generation of athletes—along with all of her fans—to live authentically and not be defined by their worst moments. At the link in bio, Jones recently spoke to Jada Gomez for?SELF Magazine about exiting the spotlight, her not-so-new love, and her advice for the next wave of Olympic stars. Tap here to read the full feature: https://lnkd.in/eMcmjNJi

This was such a fun story to report for SELF Magazine because I realized just how much momentum there is behind women's sports on a grassroots level. Bars like The Sports Bra, Rough & Tumble, and A Bar of Their Own are providing fans—old and new—with safe spaces to enjoy women's sports *and* learn more about them. It's more than a moment, it’s a movement, and the proof is in the viewership numbers: The 2024 women’s basketball national championship was the most watched basketball game—men’s, women’s, pro, college—since 2019, with an?average of 18.9 million?viewers. A $240 million, four-year TV deal recently went into effect for the National Women’s Soccer League, and they saw a?95% increase?in total viewership. The Professional Women's Hockey League launched in 2023 and experienced a?2,557% increase?in YouTube subscribers over their first season. And I can't wait to see why kind of numbers come out of the first Olympic Games in HISTORY to have an equal number of male and female athletes.

Gymnastics—like diving and figure skating—is an Olympic sport where artistry and aesthetics are intertwined with athleticism. As?Simone Biles?and her teammates catapult and contort their bodies this month in Paris, they’ll be doing so in leotards embellished with roughly 10,000 diamond-shaped Swarovski crystals. (That’s nearly 2,000 more than Team USA wore back in Tokyo in 2021.) Wearing the uniforms to compete is the last step in a process that took four years and more than 50 people to complete. For Jeanne Diaz, GK Elite’s director of design, and Erica Schnebel, the company’s director of marketing, watching the gymnasts unbox their leotards is a powerful moment. “I'm getting chills still thinking about it,” Schnebel tells SELF. Diaz shares that each leotard is crafted, first and foremost, with functionality in mind, which starts with intel from the experts themselves. GK Elite polls USA Gymnastics members on what features—from necklines to fabrics to the amount of bling—they’ve most enjoyed, or perhaps disliked, in previous uniforms. Another way to ensure the leotards help, rather than hinder, performance? They’re each custom-made. Each garment is laser-cut for super precise measurements. (Basically, they’re meant to feel like a second skin.) Each piece moves through 30 departments —from creative ideation to sewing to stone placement. As many crystals are too large (or the design too intricate) to be embellished by machine, Kira Feick, GK Elite’s laser jewel supervisor, hand-places each and every gem. “Our athletes always tell us that more is more with crystal usage,” Diaz says. To read more about how they get almost one pound of gems on?Team USA’s leotards—and whether the weight ever hinders performance—tap here: https://lnkd.in/eyY9Vmpr

Thrilled to share SELF Magazine's July 2024 cover, featuring three iconic American gymnasts who I, like so many women my age, remember watching in real time on TV during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I was curious about the women they've become, and what they think about that time in their lives now. The fantastic Christine Yu talked them to find out. https://lnkd.in/d_6rzTnj