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Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

seattletimes.com

41–50 of 148 posts

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#41
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would you mind explaining why? Not at all. Simple. Always (until now at least) a prejudice against women when positions have limited numbers to fill. And of course, the whole area of sport is biaised against women, for instance, for her sport there is still no real tour de france for women in cyclism, in 2019.

[I'm not at all denying your hypothesis. Just wishing to probe the issue further.] When women are choosing their coaches do they exhibit the same sort of choices, that you called prejudice? Maybe in general men are better at coaching? Are you assuming it is prejudice, or is that demonstrable? I wonder if sportsmen perceive that more successful sportsmen make better coaches, so female sportsmen think that males are be…

Again a simple example. Track cycling always been more difficult for athletes to make a living from, even for men. A lot of them either are integrated in traditional pro-teams or shift to road pro-cycling after their accomplishments on track. For instance Bradley Wiggins started on track then later won TdF. So part of my point was saying when there is less opportunity to make something like that (there is no true TdF for women, therefore less money, therefore less opportunities to shift from track) then to me there is an obvious difference between opportunities offered to women than men in track cycling.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#43

Great read. I have a "free spirit" in my family, a really gifted man who just couldn't settle. He's now in his 60s and does mosaics for people all around the UK. He doesn't own a house and is constantly staying with friends and family. He tried working in construction jobs and other things, settling with a family and buying a house. However after his divorce and other things he is most happy with his campervan conver…

The definition of "free spirit" is someone that lives their own life on their own means and accord while staying away from societies norms.

Someone that constantly (or most of the time) depends on other people's work to sustain themselves and to have a place to stay, aren't free spirits, they are just piggybacking on the effort of people that live according to society's norms.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#44
post #12

"She took a break at age 26, and that year she grew an entire inch" What's that again? I've never heard of anyone growing after the age of 18.

They make it sound like it was because she was burning fewer calories and had some left over to grow, but I don't think it works that way. My uneducated guess is that it's a posture thing; he spine probably stretched or relaxed in some way after she stopped spending her entire waking life hunched over pedaling.

While I'm not sure about this specific case, delayed growth due to intense exercising is a thing for gymnasts.

https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(00)70094-1/fulltext

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#45
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lazy people of course deserve housing too.

You aren’t wrong. But I doubt the multi time world champion and multi time Olympic medalist is lazy .

Different contexts. You can be really driven toward pursuing the things you care about but not things you don't.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#46

Great read. I have a "free spirit" in my family, a really gifted man who just couldn't settle. He's now in his 60s and does mosaics for people all around the UK. He doesn't own a house and is constantly staying with friends and family. He tried working in construction jobs and other things, settling with a family and buying a house. However after his divorce and other things he is most happy with his campervan conver…

I don't think this story is about a "free spirit". Twigg was a determined athlete who doggedly pursued her passion while she could and became the best in her field. But her success in sports didn't translate over to another career.

According to the article, Twigg has only been homeless for five years, and she is currently 56 years old. Twigg wasn't really a "free spirit"- She held down jobs, had kids, and made a normal life for herself up until her 50's.

So I feel that this story is instead about an older tech worker who has aged out of the workforce. As a 40-something developer who has already experienced age discrimination as well as the realization that many of my skills are becoming outdated, I feel for her. Without a nest-egg, many of us may very well be in her situation in our 50's.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#47

She sounds like a great person and I hope things work out for her. It's hard to find the right context for her without painting her in a bad light. Some people are eager to call her (or people like her) lazy, conveniently ignoring the fact that nobody really wants to live this way. Society as it is designed now doesn't know what to do with people like her, so they're either ignored or just given shelters and... That'…

Of course it's a societal failing. Why else would homelessness be much more prevalent in some areas than in others?

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#48
Homelessness is the tip of the housing iceberg. Right behind the homeless are those who are a paycheck, or emergency, from losing everything. Behind them are millions of paying out there earnings in high rent, forced to share apartments to live where the job pays. Fronting it all are upper-middle class people, foreign investors, and venture capital, buying up properties to rent out.

The cause is not a lack of "affordable housing", it's a lack of housing, period. What's not affordable are regulations and competing with real estate capital. What's not affordable is spending most of your income on rent, and this is hardly a choice for most people right now.

People will stare, and think, gosh this homeless situation is sad, inhumane, drugs/mental, w/e, but meanwhile, the shortage of housing and the affordability to create more is going to make it worse for everybody, especially those who are stuck in the middle with increasing rents and stagnant wages.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#49
post #46

Great read. I have a "free spirit" in my family, a really gifted man who just couldn't settle. He's now in his 60s and does mosaics for people all around the UK. He doesn't own a house and is constantly staying with friends and family. He tried working in construction jobs and other things, settling with a family and buying a house. However after his divorce and other things he is most happy with his campervan conver…

I don't think this story is about a "free spirit". Twigg was a determined athlete who doggedly pursued her passion while she could and became the best in her field. But her success in sports didn't translate over to another career. According to the article, Twigg has only been homeless for five years, and she is currently 56 years old. Twigg wasn't really a "free spirit"- She held down jobs, had kids, and made a norm…

[deleted]

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#50
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lazy people of course deserve housing too.

The whole idea that somebody could be so lazy as to become homeless, without any other issues, is somewhat absurd. Being homeless is terribly uncomfortable. A truly lazy person would find it unbeatable.

Interesting question. I guess most people think of depression when imagining advanced forms of laziness, but maybe determined laziness can be a form of ascetism too?
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