Why My New Favorite Olympian Is... Caroline Marks
Whatever you call Caroline Marks... never call her an underachiever. At 15, she became the youngest person to qualify for the World Surf League’s Championship Tour. At 17, she became the first female surfer to receive equal prize money to her male counterpart. At 18, she booked a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. And at 19, she’s an advocate for body positivity and eyeing the first-ever Olympic surfing gold medal when the sport makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
Born on Valentine's Day in 2002, Marks hasn't even hit 20 years of age. So what's next for this phenom? Marks joined NBCLX's Ngozi Ekeledo and Olympic fencing medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad on our podcast "My New Favorite Olympian" to discuss her Olympic journey. (CLICK HERE to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or CLICK HERE to watch the full video.)
Episode Summary
In this episode Marks shares how growing up in the public eye was particularly difficult as her every physical change was scrutinized across social media and trolls started sexualizing her by making inappropriate comments about her body.
Tokyo Olympics
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"There can be a thousand great comments and then like that one bad one," she said. "And that's exactly what happened to me. And you obviously focus on the one bad one, which is which is sad, but it's true."
Quotables
"It was it was tricky, you know, qualifying at 15. And I think you at 15, you know, you kind of become this little girl that becomes a woman and your body's changing and all these things are happening and hormones and things like that. And you're kind of like, whoa, what's going on?"
Recommended Resources
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