The inception of Vana Care was no ordinary event; it was a moment of clarity born from the shared vision of two friends, Jesse and Jason. With Jason’s extensive background in the disability sector and Jesse’s involvement in the fitness industry, they recognized a gaping void in the traditional disability support system. The duo saw that real progress and empowerment for individuals with disabilities didn’t hinge on infrequent and isolated gym sessions but required a more integrated approach to promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Jesse and Jason’s innovative solution involved retraining personal trainers from Jesse’s gyms to serve not just as fitness coaches but as life coaches for individuals with disabilities. This pioneering approach went beyond the confines of the gym, encouraging activities that fostered independence and a healthier lifestyle, such as walking to local shops or choosing stairs over elevators.

The Impact of Vana Care: Transforming Lives and Communities

The impact of Vana Care’s program on its participants was both immediate and profound. Clients experienced not just physical benefits but also significant improvements in their confidence and overall quality of life. This holistic approach to disability support, which emphasized lifestyle over mere exercise, quickly garnered positive feedback and referrals, highlighting the effectiveness of Vana Care’s model. Jesse went on to share “Our internal motto is ‘Out Care’ the competition.”

Today, Vana Care stands as the highest-reviewed disability support service in South Australia, a testament to its innovative approach and the tangible difference it makes in the lives of its clients. With a dedicated team of 150 employees and an ever-expanding family of clients who view Vana Care as their second home, the organization’s growth reflects its success in creating inclusive and health-oriented communities. Jason Wisniewski went on to share “We’re big believers in taking risks on new things & experimenting with new ways to make our team’s lives better and empower them to do a better job for the people they support.”

Looking Ahead: Vana Care’s Vision for the Future

As Vana Care looks to the future, it remains committed to its founding principles of empowering individuals with disabilities through health and lifestyle support. The organization’s continuous growth and the positive reviews it receives are a clear indicator of its vital role in the community and the demand for its compassionate, innovative approach to disability support. Jesse states “A huge part of our success so far is listening to the people we support and knowing it’s better to put profit aside to focus on the people.”

Vana Care’s story, from its inception to its current success, serves as a powerful example of how innovative thinking and a genuine commitment to improving lives can reshape an entire sector. Jesse and Jason’s vision has not only transformed the way disability support is provided but has also set a new standard for integrating health and lifestyle improvement into the care and empowerment of individuals with disabilities.

A Movement Towards a Healthier, More Inclusive World

Vana Care’s journey is more than just a tale of organizational success; it is a movement towards a more inclusive and health-focused approach to disability support. Through its pioneering programs and dedicated team, Vana Care continues to champion the idea that every individual, regardless of their abilities, deserves the opportunity to lead a healthy, active, and fulfilling life. As Vana Care continues to grow and evolve, its impact on individuals, families, and communities serves as a beacon of hope and a testament to the power of compassion, innovation, and unwavering belief in human potential.

More information about Vana Care’s impact can be found at its website here.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider. 

The post Vana Care: Revolutionizing Disability Support with a Health-First Approach appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

The 29-year-old Scot took back his SBD World’s Strongest Man title from Canadian Mitchell Hooper, who just edged out Stoltman for the top spot in 2023. The pair switched places for the 2024 contest, which was staged from May 1 to 5 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Stoltman, representing Great Britain, won the hallowed strength sport championship for the third time with 53 points. Hooper was the runner up with 47.5 points, and the USA’s Evan Singleton rounded out the podium with 36 points. Stoltman won his first pair of titles in back-to-back victories in 2021 and 2022.

“I wasn’t going home without [the win] this year. Winning the title is special every time you win it, but to come back from losing it and to win it is extra special,” Stoltman said following the event. “I shocked myself getting the lead after the first day. I wasn’t favored to win three events so to come out on top for all three was a surprise. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day, but I think it came down to who wanted it most, and this year, I wanted it most.”

COURTESY OF WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN

Stoltman took the lead after the qualifying rounds of the competition and came out on top at end, with his strong performances across all six of the Final events cementing the win. He only took first in a single event—his specialty and the final event of the competition, the Atlas Stones – but finished in the top three for all the others. Notably, Stoltman, Hooper, and Canadian Wesley Derwinsky finished tied with a new world record of 7.76 meters in the Keg Toss, the final event of the penultimate day of competition. That broke a standard held by four-time champ Brian Shaw, who officially retired from competitive Strongman last year.

Stoltman positions himself as one of the all-time great World’s Strongest Man competitors with his third title in four years; he’s the first athlete from Great Britain to win three times. He and Hooper have emerged in the last few years as the top athletes in the sport, also sharing the podium at the Arnold Strongman Classic event (which Hooper won in 2023 and 2024). Both athletes are under 30 (Hooper is 28), which should position them – and fans of strength sports – for more tight battles for years to come.

via Men’s Health US

Related:

Former World’s Strongest Man Martins Licis Shares His Workout

Here’s How The World’s Strongest Men Eat Over 10,000 Calories In A Single Day

The post Tom Stoltman wins the World’s Strongest Man 2024 crown appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

I can’t think of a little boy in this country who ever imagined he would grow up to hurt those he cares about most. That’s why targeting these violent behaviours through a men’s health and wellbeing lens presents a vital and largely untapped approach to violence prevention. It’s a message I brought to the NSW Government after the Bondi Junction attack and one I’ll be taking to share at the crisis roundtable being convened this week in Canberra.

This is a missing angle in the conversation, and while some think it’s finding an excuse for men’s behaviour, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a solution, and a much needed one. Seeking to further understand the drivers and risk factors of violence and finally start to actively engage men in a way that talks with them as change makers with skin in the game, is a moral imperative if we are to turn the tide.

We need to understand the rates of childhood maltreatment and trauma in boys and men. Those who grow up in domestically violent households are around four times more likely to perpetuate violence than those who don’t. Australian data estimates that over a third of domestic and family violence involved perpetrators drinking alcohol. Men’s suicidality is also a significant risk factor for intimate partner homicide. If you then add the impact of the porn and gambling industries in men’s lives, a stark picture appears.

These are typically not happy men. These are key forces undoing any progress we might be making on gender equality, and they are inextricably tied to men’s health and wellbeing. For years we’ve been overlooking the profound impact of men’s lived experience on violence perpetration, but if we don’t seek to understand what is going on for them, nothing will change.

In my clinical practice, men I talk to often explain that they feel blamed for the actions of others, for things they have never, and would never do. My response to them is that you don’t need to be part of the problem to be an active part of the solution. That’s where we need to get to. It’s an opportunity for growth and self-betterment.  Looking after yourself, checking in on your mates, being active and present in the lives of your children and loved ones – these actions improve health outcomes for men and contribute to women and girls feeling safer.

Instead of fixating on the wall-to-wall coverage of this crisis, we need to listen, amplify the voices of women, and get our arses into gear to realise what we can do in our own lives, to safeguard our own wellbeing and that of those we love most. Healthier men mean a healthier world for all.

There are millions of men and boys who would never consider harming their partner or families. There are incredible fathers, sons and brothers who would do anything to keep them safe and show nothing but care and compassion. They live on every street in every suburb across the country. As the majority, we need to feel part of the solution, we need to feel empowered to pick up the proverbial shovel and start digging.

I’m writing this, to encourage you to gather some courage to have those hard conversations with your mates you’re worried about – especially those who seem to be in freefall, reverting to their vices more than they have in the past. Taking action looks like lifting up your mates struggling to live healthily while being bombarded by social media, gambling ads, and alcohol in their daily lives. Taking action also looks like joining forces with advocates tackling these harmful, billion-dollar industries profiting off our collective misery. Most importantly, taking action means listening to and showing up for those who have experienced trauma or violence, ensuring they are not alone, to feel seen and understood, allowing them to choose healing over hurting.

Rallying for justice, for fairness, for the sake of the people we love, is built into men’s social DNA. But it’s important we realise that in advocating for the safety of the women and girls in our lives, we are actually also rallying for our own wellbeing, our own desire to live out our dreams as boys of being good, honourable, kind men. This is the bedrock of healthy masculinity.

So many guys tell me they feel like they don’t have purpose or meaning in their lives, that everything feels hopeless and they can’t seem to connect with others. Well, here is your opportunity to tap into something bigger than you. Let’s get marching men.

Related:

8 Behaviours That Might Be Precursors To Domestic Violence

Why Control Is A Slippery Slope Into Violence When It Comes To Relationships

The post Dr Zac Seidler on why men have a crucial role to play if we are to effectively tackle domestic violence appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

Sometimes the doctor can hear the real-time outpourings of consciousness being altered and psyches re-shaped, as years of pain and trauma recede to reveal unique and profound insights. “I often sit here in my office and can hear somebody weeping for hours, or somebody laughing for hours, or both,” Liknaitzky says.

In a world first, Liknaitzky and his team recently trialled the use of psilocybin (the active ingredient found in ‘magic mushrooms’) to treat Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The results of the study will be published later this year, however, a glimpse into the two-year undertaking will feature in a documentary, screening on SBS, called Psychedelics: Stepping into the Unknown.

Liknaitzky speaks in measured tones about the outcomes of his trial but to a layman like myself, if they’re not mind blowing, they’re certainly mind changing. “The treatment was extremely useful and meaningful in the majority of participants on this trial,” says Liknaitzky. “And from many people, we heard that they experienced something like a new lease on life, like a new hope. Many people reported that it felt like the beginning of a new journey, one that would take considerable effort into their future, but it now felt like a future worth fighting for.”

In the placebo-controlled trial, the results showed participants given psilocybin saw substantially higher treatment benefits than the placebo group six weeks after their final dosing session, Liknaitzky says. It’s worth noting, he adds, that the placebo group were given nearly 40 hours of psychotherapy with two qualified clinicians, alongside an ‘active placebo’, in this case another drug that produces psychoactive effects during the eight-hour dosing days.

“So it’s not just a sugar pill, or a sham treatment, it is a lot of therapy,” says Liknaitzky. “And despite that, when we add psilocybin into the treatment, in addition to all of that other therapy, we’re getting about four times the rate of clinically substantial response, and about five times the rate of full anxiety remission.” Perhaps ‘mind blowing’ is the more fitting descriptor.

The trial adds to the growing body of evidence on the efficacy of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions and comes on the heels of last year’s decision by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to permit the use of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and for the use of MDMA in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Liknaitzky, like many involved in the treatment of mental health in Australia, admits he was surprised by the TGA’s decision. “The psychedelic research field has progressed dramatically and rapidly over the last five years, but we still operate under the long shadow of Nixon’s war on drugs and the propaganda surrounding these substances,” he says. “So this was an unprecedented policy change.”

The move has catapulted Australia to the forefront of psychedelic research, a field Liknaitzky himself has been pioneering. “I set up the country’s first psychedelic lab in 2020, and while our colleagues overseas have been working in this field for over 20 years, we were relatively new in this space,” he says.

Dr Paul Liknaitzky I Image: Jackson Finter.

While many have expressed concerns that the TGA decision will usher in a wild west of shonky treatments and charlatans seeking profit and recognition, Liknaitzky is quick to emphasise that this recent trial was integrated in its approach, using psychotherapy to harness the power of psilocybin to unlock altered mental states.

“In terms of actually producing psychoactive effects on the dosing day, while everybody’s experience is quite unique and quite dissimilar, the vast majority of people do experience very intense, dramatic, altered states of consciousness that they will report as being among one of the most meaningful, and often, challenging experiences of their lives,” he says. “So in terms of a method that produces the kinds of altered states that we’re targeting, it’s incredibly reliable. In terms of getting benefit, that’s more complex, and that is where the whole augmented psychotherapy frame is important. A lot of people look at this as though it’s a drug treatment and that misunderstanding is perhaps the most damaging of them all.”

Focusing on the efficacy of psychedelics in isolation, he says, can lead to people believing that self-medicating can yield similar benefits and can be just as safe as clinically supported psychedelic treatment. And can lead professionals to underestimate what it takes to do a good job within this treatment approach. “Now, it’s not to say that self-medicating has no potential value, but we know a bit about it [self-medicating] in the wild, and the risks are far higher, and the benefit far lower and far less reliable.”

So, how does psilocybin work? Liknaitzky says the very distinct and often very personalised insights the drug appears to offer individuals may unlock a drive to work on making positive changes in their lives.

“One of the critical things that is happening with a psychedelic experience is that these profound lessons that people seem to acquire are delivered through a deeply felt, highly personalised, often visionary-type experience,” he says. “People will often report a kind of journey into other people’s minds, or into their distant past, or into a completely different perspective on reality. And they will discover, often towards the end of the [dosing] day, or maybe even in the weeks afterwards, that they were unwittingly playing a role in a grand kind of theatrical lesson for themselves. It’s quite phenomenal.”

This can lead patients to experience a new perspective on themselves, their problems, or the world, Liknaitzky adds. “Sometimes that’s in the form of radical empathy–we’ve had a number of people in this GAD study revisiting early traumatic experiences that they had and experiencing that, not only from the perspective of the young helpless mind, but with a very deep and wise compassion for the situation, for themselves, maybe even for the perpetrator of whatever was going on. And that compassion can set people free.”

This new perspective on past trauma can lead to “a waterfall of insight”, Liknaitzky says. The challenge then, for both patients and practitioners, is to utilise the profound breakthroughs of “dosing day” to drive lasting transformational change. “All you’ve got are thimbles to fill up and carry into the rest of your life,” he says of the potent but possibly fragile outcomes of dosing days. “Our job in psychedelic therapy is to turn those leaky little thimbles into giant buckets that you can use to carry those lessons onward into the rest of your life.”

Liknaitzky is optimistic about meeting that challenge, not least because the psychedelic experience often produces an agency and determination in patients to pursue positive changes in their lives that hitherto wasn’t there. “People report in the days, weeks, and sometimes months afterwards, that they feel aligned to their values and what’s important in life,” he says. “They feel motivated to make a difference. They have a sense of hope. It acts like a beacon to follow, because the other lesson that we’ve learned is that in most cases it is not a one and done. Generally there’s a lot of work that’s still to be done in order to change the way in which a person relates to themselves or the world.”

Ultimately, he says, the name ‘magic mushrooms’, is not quite a misnomer. “It’s magic in some respects, but it’s not a magic bullet. It’s remarkable what we can support to happen, in a short space of time, yet what that tends to represent for most people is a compelling, motivating invitation to fight for a better future.” In that sense, psychedelic treatments for mental health are not so much of a ‘trip’ as they are the beginning of a potentially life-changing journey.

To find out more about the nation-leading psychedelic research at Monash University, visit www.monash.edu/psychedelics

Psychedelics: Stepping into the Unknown, the final instalment in the new season of Australia Uncovered, premieres on Thursday 29 February on SBS and SBS On Demand from 8:40pm.

Related:

Are magic mushrooms a breakthrough treatment against the scourge of depression?

Hallucinogen therapy: don’t swallow all the hype around magic mushrooms yet

The post The power and possibility of psychedelic drugs to treat mental health appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

The Byron Bay-based actor, who’s most famous for his roles in Marvel’s Thor franchise, as well as Netflix’s Extraction action series, could earn up to $1,041,208 per sponsored post, the report found.

Compiled by Impressive, a Melbourne-based SEO service, the report analysed the Instagram followings of Australian celebrities to assess how much they could earn from a single sponsored post, based on influencer pricing from Inbeat and Hootsuite.

Hemsworth, a two-time Men’s Health cover star and founder of the Centr fitness app, mainly uses his account to showcase new projects, detail his fitness regimen and post family pictures. He beat brother Liam, who came in at no.11 in the rankings, with 12.2m followers and projected earnings of $231k.

Perth born actress, Katherine Langford, star of Netflix hit, 13 Reasons Why, came in second with more than 42.1 million followers and $737,205 per sponsored post, while Hugh Jackman finished third with more than 31.6 million followers. The Wolverine star, who primarily uses his Insta to share appearances at movie premieres and events, as well as posting training videos, was projected to earn up to $554,989 per sponsored post.

The top 10 list of Aussie insta giants is dominated by actors and singers, with Ruby Rose, Iggy Azalea and Troye Sivan all raking in digital dollars.

“Considering the huge screen presence and fanbase of popular actors, it is no surprise to see figures like Chris Hemsworth and Katherine Langford in the top five,” says Robert Tadros, CEO and founder of Impressive. “Both have also starred in successful projects on Netflix, which may have helped them to gain an even bigger following by promoting themselves on multiple platforms.

The highest ranked fitness influencer was Kayla Itsines at no.9, while the highest ranked sportsman was recently retired cricketer, David Warner at 13th, with 10.2m followers and projected earnings per post of 193k. He beat out F1 star and Drive to Survive sensation Daniel Ricciardo in 17th place and NBA star Ben Simmons in 24th.

Finally, there will be some jousting in the Irwin household today, with Bindi Irwin beating brother Robert by one spot in 27th and 28th place, respectively.

The top 10 most influential Australians on Instagram

 

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1 Chris Hemworth

58.5m followers, $1,041,555 earnings per sponsored post

 

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2 Katherine Langford

42.1m – $737,451

 

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3 Hugh Jackman

31.6m – $554,989 

 

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4 Ruby Rose

22.8m – $401,417

 

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5 Anne Curtis Smith

20.3m – $358,842

 

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6 Iggy Azalea

17.8m – $316,267

 

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7 Tammy Hembrow

17.6m – 308,665

 

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8 Kayla Itsines

16m – $282,816

 

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9 Troye Sivan

15.3m – $276,352

 

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10 Miranda Kerr

14.6m – $256,967

Related:

Chris Hemsworth’s real life diet and workout plan

Hugh Jackman shares his daily calories as he bulks up to play Wolverine again

The post Chris Hemsworth is the king of Instagram appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

While the Spaniard is undefeated in 14 fights, the Wollongong warrior has no doubt he can take care of the young challenger.

“He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’s never been beaten,” Volkanovski told MH ahead of the fight. “He thinks he’s invincible. You what I mean? He thinks he’s a man. Fair play to him. Of course he’s going to think that, because he hasn’t lost, but now he gets to see what a whole other level looks like, and he’s going to feel that first round. As I said, he needs a bit of humbling and I’m willing to be that guy.”

The bout will be 35-year-old Volkanovski’s first since being knocked out by Islam Makhachev in their lightweight rematch last year. He famously only had 11 days’ prep for that fight.

Currently third in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings and undefeated at featherweight, Volkanovski says he was miffed that Topuria had the temerity to change his Instagram bio to ‘world champion’. The way Volkanovski sees it, by beating the Spaniard he will be teaching him a valuable, potentially career-shaping lesson in humility.

“I’m a nice guy, you know what I mean? So I think this is going to be better for his career. I think he needs something like this if he wants to be champion one day and have a legacy. He needs a bit of humbling and I’m going to do that for him. And that can be a part of his story. He’s just a part of my story right now. His story will start after I take him out.

“That’s just how I look at it. It’s not disrespectful, it’s just like, Mate, this is going to be the best thing that’s ever happened to you. He’s already changed his Instagram bio to world champion and all that. He hasn’t earned that. I earned everything I’ve come for, so I’m going to give him a little reality check and let him know that, Hey, you earn these stripes. You got given this title shot. You should be happy with that, but don’t let that change your mentality, your mindset, or who you are, and I feel like it has.

“As soon as I get the job done, I’ll be talking to him directly to tell him he needs to personally change that bio. I know it’s going to sting. But it’s going to be the best thing he’s ever done, because he’s going to change it himself and be like I’m never going to be that silly again.”

Volkanovski also reflected on the sparring session he and Israel Adesanya had with Mark Zuckerberg late last year. “Mate, he gets stuck into it,” said Volkanovski of the Meta CEO’s fighting chops. “You’ll be surprised, he trains hard. I guess he wouldn’t be where he was if he wasn’t committed to whatever he does, but yeah, he actually trains hard. I was being a little nicer and careful, but Izzy was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to push him or test him and let him feel a little bit more’, and he [Zuckerberg] actually did really well. He took it well and wanted more rounds after that, so credit to him, because Izzy wasn’t taking it easy.”

 

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Also on the card at UFC 298 is Aussie middleweight veteran Robert Whittaker, who takes on Brazilian Paulo Costa, in the co-main event.

Whittaker is desperate for another crack at the middleweight title after two losses to Israel Adesanya and a TKO defeat at the hands of new champion Dricus du Plessis in July last year. The Australian hasn’t won a fight via knockout since 2017 and he is determined to “hurt” Costa in a what could be do-or-die bout for the Aussie.

You can watch UFC 298 on Sunday February 18 (Australian time) on Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel.

UFC 298 Fight Card

Alexander Volkanovski vs Illia Topuria — featherweight title (main event)

Robert Whittaker vs Paulo Costa — middleweight (co-main event)

Geoff Neal vs Ian Garry – welterweight

Merab Dvalishvili vs Henry Cejudo — middleweight

Related:

Alex Volkanovski: how the underdogs became one of the GOATS

Lean, functional fitness from UFC legend Nate Diaz

The post Alex Volkanovski is ready to teach Ilia Topuria a lesson at UFC 298 appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

Sydney will once again be transformed into a rainbow city this year to host the 2024 festival, which has become one of the biggest events in the Australian calendar spanning various different events, venues and landmarks. Running from February 16 through to March 3, organisers are adamant on maintaining a similar scale and range of events to enjoy what’s affectionately known as ‘queer Christmas’ – a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community.

 

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As always, at the centre of festivities is the Mardi Gras parade. However, it’s not the only way to surround yourself with community: with over 100 events planned, here’s a selection to get involved with this Mardi Gras. Think international icons such as CeCe Peniston and Ultra Nate, as well as other celebrities like Adam Lambert and Slayyyter.

Check out our ultimate guide below.

Festival First Light

At dawn on February 16, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras will begin in Taylor Square with a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony led by Aunty Nadeena Dixon and followed by a performance from the Buuja Buuja-Butterfly Dance Group. You can also attend a Welcome to Country led by a queer First Nations elder at Bondi Beach, Victoria Park, Sydney Town Hall and Hordern Pavillion.

Find out more here.

The Mardi Gras parade

The most iconic of events, the official Mardi Gras parade, is something you have to see at least once in your lifetime. Make your way to Oxford or Flinders Street on Saturday March 2nd and you will see numerous floats with statement-making outfits and dance moves making their way down the main thoroughfare with a bunch of different viewing options open for the general public. It’s a bucket list moment.

Find out more here.

Official Mardi Gras party

As the last stiletto walks the parade, the Mardi Gras energy kicks on at the official Mardi Gras Party. This adult party playground is taking over Hordern Pavilion and five more surrounding venues at The Entertainment Quarter from 10pm to 8am on Saturday, March 2.

Grammy-nominated pop superstar Adam Lambert has been confirmed to lead the Mardi Gras Party lineup, joined by a whopping 150 other artists showcasing a hypnotic fusion of house, techno, pop, electronica, nu-disco, club, and R’n’B.

Find out more here.

Laugh Out Proud

Mince OpenAir: House of Mince is linking up with the Ace Hotel for a sold out laneway dance on Sunday, March 3, featuring COZi, Boris, Kevin Aviance, MikeQ and Mince Angels.

Heaps Gay: Heaps Gay returns to Manning Bar for its Mardi Gras party on March 2.

Pavlovabar Mardi Gras Closing Party: Get your ass to Kinselas from 10pm, Sunday, March 3 and dance to Bashkka, Bertie, Boris, Goat Spokesperson, and Mykki Blanco.

Heaps Gay x GiRLTHING: Head to the Abercrombie for post Fair Day festivities. From 4pm until 2am.

Unknown Pleasures: There are still tickets left to House of Mince’s Mardi Gras party on March 2 at UTS. Featuring Baschoe, Deepa, Gillielove, Deep Faith, House of Juicy Sle, and more.

What is Mardi Gras and why is it celebrated?

Now a month of pride in Australia, where the LGBTIQA+ community can celebrate love, community and queerness without shame or fear, the history of Mardi Gras hasn’t always been so bright,

After a collection of global anti-LGBTQIA+ attacks, American activists called for an International Day of Gay Solidarity on June 24, 1978. Australian activists joined, and mobilised to orchestrate a day of marches and in the evening police met the protesters with violence.

In the months following, more protests and arrests continued, until April 1979, when the Parliament of New South Wales repealed the NSW Summary Offences Act legislation that had allowed the original arrests to be made. It was a huge win for civil rights in Australia, and every year since the Mardi Gras celebrations have only increased.

What date is Sydney Mardi Gras in 2024?

In 2024, the 46th Sydney Mardi Gras celebrations will kick off on Friday, February 16 and continue through to Sunday, March 2.

Find out more about the official Mardi Gras Party and get tickets over here.

This article was originally published on Womenshealth.com.au.

The post Everything you need to know about Mardi Gras 2024 appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

The 24-year-old, who won the London Marathon last April before setting the world record in Chicago in October, reportedly lost control of his vehicle while driving in Kaptagat, south-west Kenya, at 11pm local time.

His coach, Gervais Hakizimana, also died in the crash, while a third person was rushed to hospital.

Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, paid his respects, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “Devastating news as we mourn the loss of a remarkable individual, Kelvin Kiptum, world record holder and Kenyan athletics icon. Together with his coach, they tragically passed on in an accident tonight. Our nation grieves the profound loss of a true hero.”

Local county commander Peter Mulinge told the Nation newspaper that Kiptum had lost control of his vehicle and hit a tree before landing in a ditch.

“This was a self-involved accident where one Kelvin Kiptum, the world marathon record holder, was driving his vehicle with two passengers,” Mulinge added. “Kiptum and Hakizimana died on the spot and the third person was rushed to Racecourse hospital in Eldoret.”

Kiptum was the first man to run the marathon in under two hours, one minute. at the Chicago Marathon in October, beating the previous mark of fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge.

Kiptum didn’t just break the world record, he smashed it by 34 seconds, in some part due to the rapid advancements in shoe technology in recent years. In doing, so Kiptum recorded an average mile pace of 4:36 and an average 5km pace of 14:17.3.

The astonishing part of Kiptum’s feat is that until 10 months  before, he had never before run a marathon. Chicago was just Kiptum’s third marathon ever. He won the London Marathon earlier last year in 2:01:25—just 16 seconds behind Kipchoge’s world record at the time (2:01:09). This followed his debut at the Valencia Marathon in 2022, in which Kiptum announced himself to the world, winning in what was the fastest debut in marathon history, a time of 2:01:53.

Kiptum and Kipchoge were set to battle for supremacy in endurance running’s premier event at the Paris Olympics this year.

Three of the six fastest marathons ever recorded belong to Kiptum. The nine fastest times are shared by three men: Kiptum, Kipchoge and Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele.

Kiptum’s coach, Rwanda’s Gervais Hakizimana, who also died in the car accident, had previously revealed his student’s intense training program in an interview with Agence France-Presse. In preparation for last year’s London Marathon, he had regularly run between 250 and 280 kilometres and had even completed three weeks in excess of 300 kilometres. For perspective, the majority of the world’s top marathon runners complete between 180 and 230 kilometres a week, including two or three “hard” runs.

The Kenyan’s death will cast a huge shadow over the marathon event at Paris 2024, with tributes expected to mark the race. And many running enthusiasts will wonder if Kiptum would have become the first person to break the mythical 2-hour barrier–he was certainly on track to do so.

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Who is Kelvin Kiptum?

Kiptum grew up in the village of Chepkorioin Kenya. At the age of 13, Kiptum joined a village running group, and at 18 won his first road race: the 2018 Eldoret Half Marathon.

Unlike Kipchoge, Kiptum didn’t enter marathon running from a track background as his village didn’t have a track and he didn’t have the money to travel the 40km to Eldoret to do track sessions.

“When I started training, it was with the marathoners and road racers, and I just found myself running road races so young,” he said.

Kiptum’s first international race was in 2019, over 10km, where he finished second in 28:17. Later that year, he competed in Sweden’s Göteborgsvarvet half-marathon, finishing sixth in 1:01:36. He would run another five half-marathons before claiming his maiden victory at that distance at the Le Lion Montbéliard to Belfort half in 2019.

In 2021, he competed in his first race at the full marathon distance at the Valencia Marathon, posting 2:01:53. That debut time was over three minutes faster than Kipchoge’s 2013 debut at the Hamburg Marathon (2:05:30).

Related:

The training secrets behind Eliud Kipchoge’s marathon dominance

The post Athletics world mourns death of marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.