ESPN The Magazine’s annual Body Issue is always a much-ballyhooed and looked-forward-to issue. Athletes baring it all and them all being in one magazine. And there’s a lot in said magazine for both the ladies and the gents.
Among those in the 2016 version of the Body Issue is the Chicago Sky’s Elena Delle Donne.
Getting a body like Delle Donne has is one that takes lots of training, a great workout regimen, a commitment to a healthy diet. She did share in this interview with ESPN that one major challenge of hers is staying healthy with Lyme disease.
Elena Delle Donne on battling #Lyme disease and her biggest inspiration https://t.co/zeElJnvyyY pic.twitter.com/00976KXxEP
— LymeDisease.org (@Lymenews) July 6, 2016
At my worst, I have muscle aches and fatigues and various symptoms, like you get when you have the flu. Then, there are days I’ll wake up a little bit tired or my muscles aren’t recovering as well, but I keep that in mind and will alter my training. I also have to eat really well and stay away from foods that will make my inflammatory system go crazy.
-Elena Delle Donne
Photo Credit: Carlos Serrao/ESPN The Magazine
In addition, being appreciated for her figure as well as her play had to be very special for Delle Donne given when she was younger, she was made fun of for her body.
It’s funny because height is an attribute where people feel like they can call it out. Like, if I’m at a grocery store, someone will be like, ‘You’re so tall!’ Kids would be like, ‘Oh my god, you’re taller than my dad.’ ‘Oh, you look like a monster.’ ‘I don’t look like a monster, I’m just tall.’ Those would be hurtful things kids would say, but I don’t think kids even understand that that comes off as rude.
Photo Credit: Carlos Serrao/ESPN The Magazine
But as seems to be true in many cases, those that get made fun of as kids for being different end up being successful later on in life. Delle Donne is no exception to that notion.
A Body Issue feature, A blossoming career as one of the WNBA’s premier players, and an upcoming appearance in her first Olympics next month in Rio de Janeiro with Team USA. It sounds like Delle Donne came out the winner here.
Delle Donne is not the first WNBA player to go nude for the Body Issue. Britney Griner did so last year, and Candace Parker did so in 2012.
Along with the Body Issue, she was recently featured in an article for Media Planet’s Future of Business Education Issue as well as in this piece for Chicago Woman Magazine.
The University of Delaware gave the WNBA and sports overall a great one!
Also in this year’s issue are fellow Chicago star athletes Jake Arrieta and Dwyane Wade, the NFL’s Von Miller and Vince Wilfork, and Olympians April Ross, Nathan Adrian, and Claressa Shields.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
