The Top 6 Vegan Athletes of 2017
We’ve profiled the top vegan athletes of 2015 and 2016, and with this year coming to a close, it’s time for our 2017 list!
Some honorable mentions include TNA World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries, who released his memoir Food Fight: My Plant-Powered Journey from the Bingo Halls to the Big Time this year, and Gary Turner, 13-time World Champion spanning three different sports–now a personal trainer and performance expert, who notes that “when it comes to health and longevity,” a vegan diet provides “less opportunity for inflammation and cardiovascular heart disease.”
Without any further adieu, here is our list for the top six vegan athletes of this year:
1- Jahlil Okafor
We profiled NBA player Jahlil Okafor when he was the center for the Philadelphia 76ers and had just transitioned to a plant-based lifestyle for health reasons. He stated:
“The reason for doing that was to become healthy. I read this offseason that dairy was an inflammatory and my knee was swelling up, and I am a full on vegan now. I feel great and I am going to stick with it.”
Okafor, who now plays for the Brooklyn Nets, was featured in a video with John Salley for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, where he elaborated more on his newfound lifestyle-while sporting an animal rights t-shirt:
“I had a recurring injury in my knee. I just kept getting hurt and my knee was always inflamed. Main causes of my knee for being swollen was dairy. I cut out dairy, watched a few documentaries. Then I cut out steak, cut out chicken, and gradually started cutting out every animal-based product, and now I’m just all-out vegan. I’m just a lot faster, quicker. Pressure is off my knee.”
2- Kyrie Irving
Profiled in sports news website SB Nation for having “sworn off eating animals and animal products,” Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics stated:
“This season I’ve been on more of a plant-based diet, getting away from all the animals and all that. I had to get away from that. So my energy is up, my body feels amazing. Just understanding what the diet is like for me and what’s beneficial for me for having the highest energy out here and being able to sustain it at a very high level.”
“It works. I mean, I’m not eating a whole bunch of animals anymore. Once you become awake, you don’t see that stuff anymore.”
Even more recently, Irving took veganism to the mainstream when he starred in a new Nike commercial promoting his Kyrie IV sneakers. In the ad, Irving is asked how he performs the way he does after an impressive dribbling scene, and responds:
“Simple. Plant-based diet.”
You can watch the commercial here.
3- Toni Pressley
Toni Pressley of the Orlando Pride of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) was featured in ESPN, where she stated she had become a vegan four months ago as an “experiment.” After noticing she was “getting leaner and had more energy on the field,” Pressley stated:
“I loved learning about which substitutions I could make and how to reinvent recipes and food. There are so many options available that veganism is not as hard as many people think. I make sure I get my protein with plant-based protein shakes, tofu, meat replacements (I really like pea-based options), and I also take a daily vitamin.”
Pressley, who currently plays for Canberra United in the Australian W-League on loan, now describes herself as both a vegan and an animal ambassador, and often shares delicious vegan recipes for her followers!
4- Jermain Defoe
In March, after a three-and-a-half absence from international football, Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe was recalled and scored the first goal (and his 20th international goal) in the World Cup qualifier that resulted in England winning 2-0 against Lithuania. One of the things Defoe credited for his performance was his transition to a plant-based diet:
“The key thing for me is recovery, giving yourself the best opportunity to perform in the next game, and I seem to have got that down to a T. There’s a lot of things I do away from training and away from match-day that help me perform, so I’ll just keep doing that. Everyone wants to feel fresh in the game – there’s no better feeling – so I just make sure I’m doing the right things and trying to tick every box: cryotherapy, massage, eating the right things … I’m trying to turn vegan.”
After cutting out “grilled salmon, along with eggs, dairy products and honey,” Defoe stated:
“I think I’ve managed [to adopt veganism] successfully. I don’t find anything hard to give up, as such, because I know the feeling scoring goals gives me. In terms of fitness and fatigue towards the end of games, I still feel good. I’m trying. I still enjoy training, the buzz is still there and I just want to play as long as I can. So I do the stuff that will give me the best opportunity to perform and score goals.”
Defoe’s performance landed him a spot in The Guardian‘s piece focused on how ‘veganism raises your game,’ which focused on plant-based athletes who have seen “their performance soar and recovery time plummet.”
5- Tia Blanco
Professional surfer Tia Blanco may only be 20, but she has already been “ranked in the top 50 female surfers in the world by the World Surf League, took the first place Gold medal at the 2015 International Surfing Association (ISA) Open Women’s World Surfing Championship in Popoyo, Nicaragua, and came back in 2016 to successfully defend her title by winning the 2016 Championship in Playa Jacó, Costa Rica.” Blanco, who has been a vegetarian all of her life, told World Surf League (WSL):
“I went vegan for the animals. I love them all and I don’t want to eat my friends. I know it sounds cheesy but it’s true. It was surprising how easy it is to be vegan. I was vegetarian my whole life prior so the transition was relatively easy for me to cut out dairy. When I cut out the dairy I noticed I had more energy. I also lost some fat and gained muscle!”
Blanco also stated in an interview with Men’s Journal that the documentary Glass Walls and and The China Study influenced her to transition from a vegetarian to a ‘dedicated vegan.’ And for those in need of some plant-based inspiration in the kitchen, Blanco keeps a separate Instagram account specifically dedicated to veganism and recipes, called Tia’s Vegan Kitchen, which you can follow here.
6- Derrick Morgan
Last but definitely not least on our list is Derrick Morgan, football linebacker for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). ESPN recently highlighted the vegan movement taking hold of the Titans, and credited both Derrick and his wife Charity for it. According to the article:
“It all started with the Morgan family — Derrick, who decided to slowly transition to a plant-based lifestyle 10 months ago, and his chef wife, Charity, who joined him and re-educated herself as a vegan chef to cook for him.”
As of December, 11 Titans players are part of the vegan meal plan, and Charity has “had to turn away interested Titans’ newcomers to the meal plan because she has reached her limit on how much she can cook by herself.” Thanks to Derrick’s choice 10 months ago, “everybody is making plays. Everybody is healthy. Everybody is eating right.”
That sums up our list for 2017! We can’t wait to see which professional athletes take the plant-based plunge in 2018!
