A big old Gluten Dude congratulations to Dana Vollmer for her world record-breaking gold medal in the 100-m butterfly.
Dana has extreme gluten-sensitivity and was plagued for years by intense stomach aches, joint pain and headaches.
Since going gluten-free, many of her maladies have disappeared, allowing her to excel in what she does best.
Well done Dana. You made the gluten-free community proud.
Since you obviously cannot eat Wheaties, I propose that a gluten-free cereal puts you on one of their boxes instead.
It might look something like this:
I am in Canada and we don’t get the same coverage of the American athletes as you would get, and I am admittedly watching Canadian programming but yesterday the anouncer was speaking of her chronic health problems, mentioned a heart issue and unfortunately never mentioned celiacs disease. This is news to me. I will have to point this out to my kids if she is racing again this week. I’m happy to hear of an athletic role model excelling with celiacs disease. Congratulations to Dana and to all the athletes competing this week. I am Olympic crazed!!
Just to be clear, she does not have celiac disease, but suffers from gluten-sensitivity. No big deal, I just didn’t want to mislead anybody.
Awesome! It’s time the gluten-sensitive peeps have someone to bring to the public’s attention that gluten can still wreck a person’s life in the absence of Celiac. I think the majority live with the symptoms because of being diagnosed IBS and told there was nothing they could do about it except treat the symptoms.
Agree Miss Dee. It’s not just the celacs who suffer.
Agreed! I am ‘only’ gluten sensitive but I suffer more violent reactions from gluten ingestion than our celiac diagnosed daughter. GS is just as serious as CD. It often just means a person couldn’t stand to suffer any longer to get a dr to believe they needed to be tested. I paid for my own labs. Results showed that my body made antibodies to gluten and that I had at least one of the genes that could lead to celiac disease. That was enough ‘proof’ for me. Fifteen years later and my body is still healing but at least I don’t feel like I have chronic fatigue syndrome now.
Congrats Dana!
GD – I have to say that I REALLY wish you’d just put her head on the gorilla!
Also, I’ve always thought Erewhon cereal should do some sort of cross-promotion with Erewhon sporting goods store. This might just be the perfect opportunity!
Thanks for catching a gluten free Olympian. We watched her and I had no idea.
She does need her pic on a box. Good call.
Let us know if you hear of others!
I usually never pay attention to women’s swimming in the Olympics, but I felt like I had to root for Dana, ’cause of the gf love. I think she just signed a deal to be spokeswoman for Crunchmaster? Either way, good for her!
Love the cereal box images! LOL! I think she might look better on the Apple Cinnamon Chex though 😛
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I had no idea she was a Gee-Freer and I am so thrilled for her!
Nice cereal boxes! You ARE multi-talented 🙂
Congratulations to Dana ~ and thanks for bringing this to our attention. It is awesome that she is also a good role model for eating GF in a healthy way … good for her … and glad that she is healthier and now excelling at what she loves to do …
there is a petition that you can sign to get Vollmer on the Chex box, if you are interested.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/olympicchexbox/
Australia also has a famous coeliac Olympic athlete. Tommaso D’Orsogna was in the men’s 4 x 100 medley relay team. They got a bronze medal and it is Tommaso’s first Olympics!
I suppose this will have gone largely unnoticed with the mostly American readership of this blog (and I suppose this response to such an old post probably won’t garner much attention either), but there was celiac triumph in the sporting world tonight at the annual IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) Under-20 World Championship Tournament. Canada defeated Russia 5-4 at the gold medal game in Toronto with a lineup featuring celiac Max Domi, who finished tied for 4th in tournament scoring with 10 points (5 goals and 5 assists; three of his teammates tied for first with 11 points). He was also named to the tournament’s all-star team and proclaimed its top forward.
He notched three points in the final game tonight, including an assist on the game’s first goal just 23 seconds from the opening faceoff. He added a goal in the second period to stake Canada to a 4-1 lead and assisted on another shortly thereafter to extend the lead to 5-1 with a shot that a teammate deflected into goal. Russia almost immediately stormed back to close the gap to 5-4 before the second period ended, but this was all the scoring for the night as Canada held on for the narrow one-goal victory.
Even if you’ve never heard of Max Domi, his name might sound familiar if you’re a hockey fan. He’s the 19-year-old son of former noted NHL tough guy Tie Domi, who retired in 2006 with the 3rd-highest career total in penalty minutes after 16 years with the New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets and (mostly) Toronto Maple Leafs. But as you’ve probably guessed from my description of his scoring prowess, Max’s playing style is little like his dad’s and he’s already making a name for himself as an elite hockey player in his own right. In the 2013 NHL draft, he was selected 12th overall in the 1st round by the Arizona Coyotes and all indications are he has a promising pro career ahead of him.
Unfortunately (for those of us of the gluten intolerant persuasion), he also happens to be diabetic, and most of the sports media usually focus more on this other aspect of his health issues. For example, there was a 3-1/2 min feature on him during the pre-game show of tonight’s gamecast that dealt exclusively with his diabetes and made no mention of his celiac (viewability may vary by location, esp outside Canada so FWIW here’s a link: http://www.tsn.ca/video/wjc-nothing-can-hold-domi-back-1.175574 ).
This might also be true for Max himself, who wears the jersey number 16 in homage to former Philadelphia Flyer Bobby Clarke, who is probably the most highly noted diabetic to have ever played in the NHL. But I don’t judge him too harshly for this — much like the rest of us, he’s probably well aware of how poorly understood this disease is among the bread population (LOL I meant to say “broad” there but I guess bread works, too!) and chooses not to draw too much attention to it out of concern over getting lumped in with trendy GF faddists.
So no matter — tonight I savour this victory.
Totally awesome. And as an avid Rangers fan, I remember Tie Domi very well.
Check this beauty goal Max scored just last night — still playing junior in Ontario. I can’t wait til he’s in the NHL, hopefully next season.
http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hockey/24987187/video-coyotes-prospect-max-domi-scores-unthinkable-goal-in-ohl
Sweet!