{"id":242638,"date":"2025-10-27T03:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/242638\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T03:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:33:08","slug":"demi-vollering-uneasy-about-fake-pro-sports-attitudes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/242638\/","title":{"rendered":"Demi Vollering Uneasy About ‘Fake’ Pro Sports Attitudes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated October 26, 2025 03:24PM<\/p>\n

Demi Vollering<\/a> has found herself at the center of a media frenzy from time to time during her career, with various comments going viral and leading to a lot of attention.<\/p>\n

That happened last winter when she left the SD Worx Protime team, voicing what appeared to be disillusionment with that squad. She was in the headlines again after this year\u2019s Tour, when controversy about winner Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a>\u2019s weight made news.<\/p>\n

The Dutchwoman has given a frank interview with de Volkskrant<\/a>, saying that her comments have been often misinterpreted, but also saying she won\u2019t bite her tongue when she has something to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s often not a question of whether I should speak out about something or not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t, I think I lose more energy on it because I then spend all the time thinking about it. I\u2019d rather just say it out loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI now know that every time I open my mouth, there will be commentary. That\u2019s just how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Wow, weren\u2019t we friends?\u2019
\n\"SDVollering (second from left) was previously part of the SD Worx-Protime squad\u00a0(Photo: Alex Broadway\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Vollering was part of the SD Worx-Protime team for four years, winning the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in its colors and also taking many other races.<\/p>\n

She looked on course to win last year\u2019s Tour but crashed heavily on stage 5. Her-then teammate Lorena Wiebes accidentally brought her down, with Vollering left lying on the road in the maillot jaune and then receiving minimal team support in the chase.<\/p>\n

She dropped to ninth overall and while she put in a huge ride to win the final stage and to make serious inroads into the race lead of Kasia Niewiadoma, she ended up an agonizing four seconds short.<\/p>\n

Vollering played down the lack of support until the end of the season, but eventually aired her frustration with how management had treated her at times.<\/p>\n

Speaking to NRC.nl last November<\/a>, she said that directeur sportif Danny Stam told media the previous March that she would be leaving the team when that departure had not been confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like a slap in my face,\u201d she said then. \u201cI had not made a decision and I still hoped that the team would make changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last winter coincided with a breakdown in relations with her former team, something she sees as symptomatic of an issue with pro sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many people and relationships that over time turn out to be fake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am someone who quickly likes others, so that is quite difficult for me. Last winter I changed teams, and with that, teammates. There were moments when I thought: wow, weren\u2019t we friends? Apparently not anymore. That was quite intense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I get on my bike, I participate in that intensity. Then I am a killer and want to win. Off the bike, it\u2019s different.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I don\u2019t exactly know what to expect from someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Young people struggle\u2019
\n\"GoldVollering hugs former teammate Anna Van Der Breggen after the European road championships in France on October 04. (Photo: Billy Ceusters\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Vollering appears to be a deeper thinker than many within the peloton. In January she opened up about the turmoil and anxiety she felt during the 2024 Tour.<\/p>\n

Writing in a social media post, she also talked about mental health and the need to confide in others.<\/p>\n

She gave an example of how her-then teammate Mischa Bredewold helped her deal with what she was feeling.<\/p>\n

That in turn taught Vollering an important lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized how important it is to talk about what we\u2019re going through,\u201d she wrote<\/a>. \u201cAnxiety can make you feel stuck and isolated, but sharing your feelings \u2014 even when it\u2019s hard \u2014 can be the first step toward relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

She returned to the topic of mental health again after winning stage five of this year\u2019s Vuelta Espa\u00f1a Femenina.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last days were a little bit more difficult. Someone close to me goes through a really hard time mentally,\u201d she said then<\/a>. \u201cI see that too much around me young people struggle. So today I did everything I could because mentally I know I am very, very strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of my mentality I can win beautiful races. But some people, their brain is a bit too strong in the wrong direction and they struggle and suffer so much with their mental health. And it is still such an unknown problem in this world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo today my win was a sacrifice for all the people who have a really hard time mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vollering is frank and more open than many athletes. That\u2019s often a good thing, shining a light on mental health and other topics. But being outspoken has also left her vulnerable to misinterpretation and sometimes criticism.<\/p>\n

She could clam up to avoid that, but insists she won\u2019t resort to that.<\/p>\n

Instead she said that she\u2019ll talk about whatever is on her mind, but not necessarily revist that topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to become quieter, but I don\u2019t want to give a hundred more interviews on the same subject just because I\u2019ve already spoken out about one thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018My comments were taken out of context\u2019
\n\"Second-placedVollering (l) on the podium with Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot and Kasia Niewiadoma at the end of that race (Photo: Julien De Rosa \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

There is a recent example of how Vollering\u2019s frankness can lead to what she feels are sensationalist misinterpretations.<\/p>\n

Following Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s Tour win, it emerged that the Frenchwoman had lost four kilograms for the race.<\/p>\n

Vollering wrote an extensive social media post about the topic, insisting that she personally would not go down the same route.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing weight is not the ultimate solution,\u201d she wrote. \u201cFor me, performance is about far more than that. It\u2019s about strength. Balance. Fueling well. Feeling mentally strong. And recovering faster than everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

She warned that obsession over weight can create health problems, especially for young cyclists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make, and will continue to make, every decision in my career by putting my health first. Always,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is: I\u2019m not built to be the lightest rider in the peloton,\u201d she posted<\/a>. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t want to force my body to become something it\u2019s not. I\u2019m already racing at the highest level with a strong, lean, capable body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several months later she now says that some media inaccurately interpreted those comments as being a criticism of the Tour winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was again an eye-opener to see how my comments were then taken out of context, how clickbait was made out of them,\u201d she told de Volkskrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really annoyed by that; it turned into something negative about Pauline, and I thought that was unfair.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t win the Tour only because she was lighter in weight, but also because she had prepared well. People thought I didn\u2019t wish her success, but that wasn\u2019t the case at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated October 26, 2025 03:24PM Demi Vollering has found herself at the center of a media frenzy from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,79744,114078,62578,114079,54267],"class_list":["post-242638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-demi-vollering","tag-tag-mental-health","tag-tag-pauline-ferrand-prevot","tag-tag-womens-cycling","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}